The washermen community of Bihar has threatened not to wash “dirty clothes” of the chief minister, his Cabinet colleagues, parliamentarians, state lawmakers and other leaders, in protest against non-allotment of land for “Dhobi Ghat”, a place for washing clothes. They will go on strike from 18 March.
According to the washing community people, they have been demanding allotment of land for “Dhobi Ghat” in Patna’s Kankarbagh, considered the biggest residential colony in Asia, for years. They said they met the urban development minister and its officials many times but nothing has happened so far.
“We are losing patience…if our demand is not fulfilled soon, we won’t offer services to the politicians,” said Patna district Washermen Committee president Karu Rajan. According to him, a decision to this effect has already been taken at a meeting of the committee on Sunday.
“Crores of rupees are being wasted in the name of cleaning river Ganga but the government has no money to construct a Dhobi Ghat for us,” he said.
Earlier the Rabri Devi government in Bihar faced crisis when the washing community people issued similar threats to protest the state government’s decision to convert a local dhobhi ghat into a vegetable market.
They said they had been using the ghat since 1914. Somehow, the matter was settled before it could blow up into a major problem for the politicians.
Each politician is said to have more than 30 pairs of kurta-payjamas which they discard after a single use and send them for washing the very next day, informed sources said.