Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Madhya Pradesh government is set to provide up to 10% reservation to Agniveers in the state's uniformed services. Mandatory reservation provisions will be made in future recruitment drives across the police, jail, forest, excise and transport departments for Agniveers who are natives of Madhya Pradesh and have completed their four-year service tenure with the Indian Armed Forces (Army, Navy and Air Force).
To accommodate this reservation for Agniveers, there will be a slight change in the existing reservation quotas allocated to Home Guards and ex-servicemen in these departments.
Currently, the police department allocates 15% reservation to Home Guards and 10% to ex-servicemen for the post of general constable.
Under the new proposal, a reservation of 10% will be provided for Home Guards, 7.5% for ex-servicemen and 7.5% for Agniveers; this will not alter the existing reservation ratios.
For the posts of Special Armed Force (SAF) constables and excise department constables, a separate 10% reservation will be created for Agniveers without reducing the quotas for Home Guards and ex-servicemen.
However, for the posts of guard at jail department and forest department, the 30% reservation currently allocated to Home Guards will be reduced to 20%, with the remaining 10% being allocated to Agniveers.
Recruitment likely in January-February
The first batch of Agniveers has already completed three years and eight months of service.
Recruitment for the first batch took place in December 2022 and January 2023; consequently, their four-year service tenure is set to conclude between December 2026 and January 2027.
The state government plans to initiate recruitment for uniformed services in January-February, thereby allowing native MP Agniveers the opportunity to participate.
By that time, the proposed Police Recruitment Board for Madhya Pradesh, which will oversee all uniformed service recruitments in the state, is also expected to be constituted.
Proposal prepared
ACS Home Sanjay Shukla told Free Press that the finance department has approved the home department's proposal regarding this new reservation system.
Additionally, other departments with uniformed services, namely jail, forest, excise and transport, have also given their consent.
The proposal has now been forwarded to the state government for final approval and is scheduled to be presented to the Cabinet next month (September), where its approval is considered almost certain.
