Withdraw cases against youth involved in Agnipath violence incidents: Telangana state planning board vice chairman B Vinod Kumar

HYDERABAD: Telangana state planning board vice chairman B Vinod Kumar urged president of India to direct the Centre to withdraw all the cases against the youth, who were arrested in connection with Agnipath violent incidents across the country.
He also appealed to release the youth and allow them to further examinations as they are youth in their 20s and unemployed.
Addressing a press conference at Narsampet town in Warangal district after paying floral tributes to D Rakesh, who died in railway police firing at Secunderabad railway station.
The former MP said the youth resorted to the violence in a fit of emotion and anger, but not a cold-blooded plan.
“Currently, there are 14 lakh armed personnel in three defence services – army, navy and air force. Their salary bill per year is Rs 2.50 lakh crore. There are another 33 lakh pensioners in the armed forces. Their pension bill is around Rs 1.20 lakh crore. Total Defence budget in 2022-23 is Rs 5.25 lakh crore. Of this, Rs 3.70 lakh crore goes to salaries and pensions. Only Rs 1.55 lakh crore is left for purchase of arms and modernisation of forces. If the Centre wants to cut down on pension bills, it should be done in a gradual and phased manner, not suddenly,” the TRS leader said.
The Centre should increase the defence budget by another 15- 20 per cent, taking it to 6 to 7 per cent of the GDP. Modernisation of armed forces should be given top priority. There shall not be any compromise on national security, Vinod said.
He said PM Modi takes all major decisions suddenly, for example, demonetization or GST etc. Such decisions in hurry are not good for the country. He said 2019 and 2020 batch army recruitment should be completed normally. All those who prepared and gave tests for these should be given a chance to apply for army jobs, he said
Decreasing the average age of our armed forces from the present to 32 years is a good move, but it should be done without affecting the present aspirant candidates, the planning board vice chairman said.