The defence ministry has finally approved a list of basic clothing items that a soldier up to the rank of junior commissioned officer (JCO) has to procure from the annual dress allowance. The annual allowance of Rs 10,000, as recommended by the Seventh Pay Commission, has already been paid for this year, but the decision on what items it could cover has come only now, after long deliberations between the army and the ministry.Soldiers and JCOs will be required to procure basic uniforms, such as summer and winter uniforms, mufti dress and accoutrements such as lanyard, belt, badges, ribbons, chevron, formation sign, etc. from this allowance, government officials said. There are close to 40 items of basic uniforms approved by the ministry for buying from the allowance. These include vests, underpants, beret, name tab, shoulder badges, black leather belt, shirt, trouser, jungle boots, socks and gloves.“All other authorised combat dress, physical fitness training kit including the newly introduced and better PT shoes will continue to be issued to all soldiers from the military stores as authorised issue items. Such items also include blankets, ground sheets, raincoats and mosquito nets,” explained an official. “Recruits will also continue to get additional dresses during recruitment training as before.” Special clothing items that are given to soldiers when deployed at Siachen Glacier and other very high-altitude areas will also be issued according to the present procedures. Previously, jawans and JCOs were authorised certain clothing items through clothing stores and an allowance was granted for the maintenance of the uniform.As per the pay commission recommendation, all these, including washing and maintenance allowances, were subsumed into the dress allowance which is to be paid annually. “The new system will bring qualitative change and better economy,” said the government official. Coming to this stage had taken some time. There were deliberations on the items to be included on the list and it was prepared based on the market rates of the items, officials said. Under the new system, personal clothing items issued to these soldiers would be partly catered from the dress allowance and the remaining would be procured by the army from ordnance factories and the open market.