Farmers Movement Archive

At UP Gate, Covid takes a toll on protesters strength

Ghaziabad: The farmers protesting against the Centre’s new farm laws at the UP Gate site said that nowadays they are fighting on “two fronts” -- pressing for their demands and keeping Covid-19 at bay. On Sunday, most of the tents and camps were devoid of protesters as their numbers, according to farmer leaders, have reduced to about 500-700 at the site. The hectic activity at the site, which was in prevalence till mid of April, has now taken a halt as the dais on Sunday saw presence of only a handful of protesters waiting for the proceedings to begin. The UP Gate protest site since November 28 last year had been witnessing participation by thousands of farmers from Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and other states like Punjab and Haryana. “The gathering nowadays has declined as we have asked many of our protesters to go home. It is done keeping in mind the pandemic situation. However, we are still continuing to press for our demands. On the other hand, we are also handling the Covid situation at the UP Gate and none of our protesters has faced issues,” said Jagtar Singh Bajwa, farmer leader and member of UP Gate farmers’ committee. “So, we are fighting on two fronts, and we will not bow down,” he added. Suresh Chand, a farmer from Firozabad in UP, is among many of the first ones who came to the protest site in November. “The activities have halted for a brief period as many people have gone to villages for harvesting of sugarcane. But we are continuing our protest. We have about 10 langars which are operational nowadays. Covid is another obstacle which has come in our way,” Chand said. While few farmers continue to camp in tents put up on the Ghaziabad-Delhi carriageway of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway, others are camping below the UP Gate flyover and have also put up a screen where they mostly spend time watching television during evenings. A visit by an HT team to the site on Sunday revealed that most of the protesters were resting in camps while others were busy preparing food in langars. Saleem Chaudhary from Saharanpur has also been at the site since the beginning of the agitation. “The agitation is not to show our strength. The government knows it. They also know that we will continue to camp here despite spike in Covid-19 cases,” said Chaudhary, who is a member of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) led by Naresh Tikait. Rajbir Singh Jadaun, state president of BKU, said that they do not allow outsiders to enter the site in the wake of pandemic. “Since the beginning of the agitation, we have a number of poor people coming in to have food at our langars. Despite the pandemic, we have not stopped serving them food. But we have made arrangement for them on two sides of the site where they come in the evening every day in hundreds,” Jadaun said. “To tackle Covid, we restricted the number of farmers at the site and our leaders have also cancelled their rallies. The Samyukta Kisan Morcha has written to the Prime Minister to resume talks and we are waiting for reply,” he said. To avoid any infection, the farmer leaders said that they received cooperation from the district authorities to keep the site infection-free. “But we have also roped in our own fogging machine, and we are ensuring that the site remains clean. Now, we demand that our farmers should get vaccine at the earliest,” Jadaun added. The Farmer leaders said that they are also helping out patients and their families in their respective villages. At Bazpur in Uttarakhand, they have set up “oxygen langar” to help patients get oxygen, while others have started a campaign to make “death register” of fatalities which have taken place in villages. “We have asked our members to get the registers prepared in villages where number of deaths seems more during the past two months. These registers will be sent to the government, and we will try to raise issue if there is mismatch with government figures. The exercise is taking place in Muzaffarnagar, and we will do it in other districts as well,” said Dharmendra Malik, state spokesperson of BKU. The BKU has its headquarters at Sisauli in Muzaffarnagar. When asked, Ghaziabad chief medical officer Dr NK Gupta said, “If the farmers send us a demand, we can arrange for a vaccination camp, and we can also help them get vaccine at the centre near the UP Gate.” Gyanendra Singh, superintendent of police (city 2), said that the gathering has reduced at the UP Gate since the second wave of Covid-19. “We are keeping our communication open with the farmers at the site and our regular police and PAC deployment is continuing. The farmers are continuing their agitation in a peaceful manner,” Singh said.

Hindustan Times

23-05-2021

Noida