The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) headquarters here has directed all its formations across the country to ensure that all the personnel wear the CRPF disruptive pattern uniform on every Friday.

The specialised wings of the CRPF like the Rapid Action Force and Combat Battalion for Resolute Act (CoBRA) have been directed to wear their respective disruptive pattern fatigues on Fridays.

Earlier, the 3.25 lakh strong CRPF had directed its personnel to take pride in wearing the khaki/combat pattern uniform, as reported by The Pioneer.

“It has been decided by the Competent Authority that all officers and personnel will wear the CRPF disruptive pattern uniform on every Friday of the week,” according to an order issued by the Inspector General (Administration) at the CRPF headquarters here MS Bhatia.

Similarly, the specialized wings of the CRPF will wear their respective disruptive pattern uniforms on every Friday. This order will take effect immediately from the date of issue, it said.

The order was issued on Friday and circulated to all the five zones, CRPF Academy, Gurugram, all Inspectors General including operations, administration, RAF and CoBRA. It has also been circulated to the Internal Security Academy, Mount Abu besides the training centres and the medical wing.

In June, the CRPF headquarters had issued a directive to all the formations across the country to take pride in wearing the paramilitary’s Khaki/combat pattern uniform.

The directive was then triggered after CRPF chief Kuldiep Singh took exception to a number of officers and men wearing the CoBRA pattern fatigue while deployed in Jammu and Kashmir.

Despite repeated reminders for following the uniform rules, even senior officials were found to be flouting the norms in the Valley.

In April, similar instructions for strict adherence to the uniform rules were issued.

In the circular issued on April 16, the DG’s office had said, “Competent authority has observed that officers are exhibiting complacency towards their uniform. Uniform is a matter of pride and officers must have an exemplary turn-out at all times. Commandants and senior officers should not hesitate to point out deficiencies. Henceforth, please ensure that officers and the men they command are smartly turned out.” It called for a strict compliance of the order.

CoBRA is a specialized anti-Naxal force within the overall command of the CRPF. Likewise, the RAF, a specialized anti-riot force, also functions under the command of the CRPF.

The CRPF was raised in 1939 but despite being in existence for over 80 years, the paramilitary does not have a patented pattern for uniform. Besides the CoBRA, the Rapid Action Force (RAF) also has a distinctive pattern of fatigue. The RAF uniform pattern has been copied by the West Bengal police and the disruptive pattern of the CoBRA uniform has been adopted by several state police forces in absence of any patents for these uniforms.

Despite being the biggest paramilitary with lead roles in various operational theatres, the provisioning

directorate of the CRPF has not been able to get patents for the different fatigues in vogue in the Force and specialized wings under its command, officials said.

Besides inculcating discipline in the ranks, a uniform also helps in imparting a unique identity to the personnel.