Security personnel fighting Maoists will be able to wear comfortable shoes when they march in jungles with the Home Ministry relaxing the rules of putting on hard-sole military boots.
The decision has been taken after the Home Ministry received representations that many paramilitary soldiers were often having problems in wearing hard-sole leather boots in patrolling while going on offensives against the Naxals.
A Ministry official said all security personnel deployed in Naxal-affected states have been allowed to wear canvas shoes or any shoe which they feel comfortable.
"Henceforth, there will be no mandatory rule for any particular type of shoe. The jawan himself will pick up his choice of shoe from the inventory," he said.
The move came after Minister of State for Home RPN Singh visited Jharkhand and interacted with CRPF jawans, who spoke of difficulty in wearing hard-sole leather boots.
There are around 82,000 paramilitary personnel deployed in nine Maoist-hit states where they are fighting the Naxal menace along with state police forces.
