Dhaka, July 19:

There is no wedding in Bangladesh without Benarasi saris, mostly purchased from India. But the craze is not helping local weavers in producing the same here.

They have been demanding a complex of their own on the outskirts of Dhaka. They have paid for the plots in that complex but have received nothing for the last 17 years. They have threatened an agitation if the ‘Benarashi Palli’ project does not take off within the next 15 days. They utilised the opening of the month-long Handloom Fair here to put the top ministers and officials on notice. Mirpur on Dhaka’s outskirts alone has a total of 42,000 weavers from 10,000 handloom units.

Abdul Zabbar, one of the leaders, told the textile mi-nister, “We will stage a de-monstration, if the government does not allot 906 pl-ots as per the commitment by the government.”