BSF men at Indo-Pak, Bangla borders vulnerable to snake bites

The reason for the woes of BSF troopers is premier Footwear Design and Development Institute (FDDI) has not been able to up with a final design in the last two years.

"Sketch of the shoe drawn by the Director (Technical) FDDI was received and same after approval of Inspector General (Provisioning) has been sent to Director FDDI on December 30, 2009 for fabrication of one sample and specification.

"BSF has also sent reminders to expedite fabrication of one sample of high ankle boot. However, no response has yet been received. Further efforts are underway to get the sample prepared and authorised by the Ministry of Home Affairs," the Border Security Force (BSF) said in its reply to a Parliamentary standing committee on Home Affairs recently.

The committee had expressed its concern on the death of BSF troopers due to snake bite incidents and "strongly recommended" provisioning of such boots for jawans and officers guarding the crucial Indo-Pakistan and Indo-Bangla borders.

The FDDI, situated in Tamil Nadu's Sriperumbudur, was set up by the government in 1986 with an objective to provide human resource and technical services to the footwear industry and is also recognised as a centre of excellence in this domain.