Patna district magistrate Sanjay Kumar Singh at the janata darbar at his office on Thursday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, April 21: Just being alert on duty is not enough for chowkidars visiting the district magistrate’s (DM) janata darbar. They need to be more cautious about their dress code too.

Today, Patna DM Sanjay Kumar Singh acted harsh on three chowkidars who came to lodge a complaint against not receiving salary for the past eight months. They must not have imagined that they would get a rap from the DM.

Three chowkidars from Khusrupur police station visited the DM’s janata darbar without wearing muretha (headwear), which is compulsory for them to wear it on duty. Chowkidars are under Bihar police and are assigned duty to keep surveillance on anti-social elements in rural areas.

The trio went to the DM and said: “Sir, we have not been getting salary for the past eight months and our condition is pathetic. There are 24 other chowkidars who facing the same problem. It has become difficult for all of us to live without financial support. Kindly look into the matter.”

Singh listened to them carefully and looked at them from top to bottom.

The DM then asked: “Why are you people not wearing your murethas? Don’t you have money to buy muretha also? How much does it cost, aren’t you aware that you are suppose to wear it on duty? I don’t like this at all. The next time I find you not wearing murethas, you will be suspended. It’s the basic thing which you need to follow.”

Then, Vijayan Paswan, a chowkidar, said: “Sir, we are not getting salary for eight months, how do you expect us to buy muretha? Bihar police is supposed to give us the uniform, which we have not got in the past year. Our uniforms are in bad shape.”

The DM replied: “Okay, fine. But I don’t think you have to spend much money on buying a muretha. Now, go, I will look into your grievances.”

When all three chowkidars came out from the darbar, The Telegraph asked them about their muretha.

Pachhu Paswan, another chowkidar, said: “Yes, we know that we are supposed to wear muretha on duty but we did not intentionally. Look, we are carrying our muretha along with us. We never thought that he would ever notice such a small thing. We have been instructed to wear blue muretha while on duty and on patrolling also. But I don’t understand instead of solving our problem why he shouted over the muretha. I don’t think that it was necessary to wear that at this point of time.”

Another chowkidar, Kedar Mahto, said: “We came here about not getting salary for eight months. How did the muretha issue come in between?”

Asked on being harsh with the chowkidar, the DM said: “See, there is a particular dress code for everyone in Bihar police and they are supposed to abide by it. Otherwise, it would not have any value. Dress code portrays the men’s personality and shows the dedication and honesty towards the job assigned to them. As far as their salary issue is concerned, the block development officer has been asked to justify the delay in payment of their salaries. Their problem would be solved.”