Agnipath Row: Protestors block railway tracks in West Bengal, services hit

KOLKATA: Train services on the Sealdah-Bangaon route in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district were disrupted for a brief period on Friday morning as a group of students held a demonstration on railway tracks protesting against the Centre's newly introduced 'Agnipath' scheme for recruitment in defence services, officials said.

Around 50-60 students blocked the tracks at Thakurnagar station from 7.50 am to 9.15 am, an Eastern Railway official said, adding that trains services now are normal. The protestors held a demonstration against the Centre's 'Agnipath' scheme at the station for more than an hour, said a senior officer of Giaghata Police Station. They also made an attempt to march towards the residence of BJP MP and Union Minister of State for Shipping Shantanu Thakur, he said.

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The government on Tuesday unveiled a "transformative" scheme-- 'Agnipath'-- for the recruitment of soldiers in the Army, Navy and the Air Force largely on a four-year short-term contractual basis, in a major overhaul of the decades-old selection process to bring in fitter and younger troops to deal with future security challenges facing the nation.