Farmers Movement Archive

Langar services face the brunt of protests, violence

Many langar services at the Singhu border are facing trouble getting supplies, especially water and disposables, farmers said on Saturday. They complained that the supplies are being stopped at several points. Harjinder Singh, 47, from Amritsar who has been running ‘kheer langar’ for over a month and a half said they were running short of wood to light fire for cooking and had to walk three kilometres to bring it, which delayed the cooking. “People who are bringing us milk and cylinders are being threatened and stopped by the security officials,” he said, adding that he doesn’t blame the police as they’re getting orders from “their bosses in the government”. Santok Singh, 70, from Hoshiarpur who has been running a langar since the protest started, said that they are running out of disposables which they were getting from Haryana and Punjab. “We are running out of water bottles and plates which we use in langar. We need about 6,000 every day and are left with only 4,000 now. The police are stopping our people from coming here. They still somehow manage to come,” he said. Lack of help Another problem the langar sewas are facing is lack of help from nearby villages. Mast Ram, 30, from Haryana’s Jind, who runs a langar with at least four dishes on offer, served only pulses and rice on Saturday because he didn’t get help. “The children who helped with cleaning utensils and cutting and chopping, and the elders who would cook are not coming in out of fear. All this January 26 and 29 incidents have been done to create fear among people. The kids are telling me that their parents are scared to send them here and they don’t feel safe,” he said. He added that there are rumours floating around that crowd has lessened here and protesters are going back but that’s not true. “Crowd at the protest site was massive because locals roamed around for food. There are hardly any locals now,” he said. A few protesters on Saturday also carried out a march to reassure people that protesters are here to stay. “We are carrying out a tractor march across the protest site at the Singhu border to show people that no one is going back and we’re all here to stay till the laws are repealed,” said 23-year-old Amandeep Kaur Sandhu from Moga. On Friday and Saturday, scores of tractors came in especially from Haryana.

The Hindu

2021-01-31

NEW DELHI