Farmers Movement Archive

Farmers build 2-storey house at Singhu border

BATHINDA: Anticipating a long haul and to save the protesting farmers from the scorching summer heat, farmers are firming up concrete plans that include air-conditioned trolleys and a brick-and-mortar house. The brainchild of farm organisation BKU Doaba’s Hoshiarpur circle unit, the construction of the two-storey house started on Wednesday on a piece of government land near the protest site at Singhu border. Big enough to accommodate over 100 protesters, there are plans to install ACs in the building, too. The house is being constructed on a plot measuring 60 feet x 20 feet and will comprise three rooms on the ground floor and a hall on the first floor, all equipped with ACs. Instead of having a lintel roof, iron girders and wooden logs will be used. The farmers say they will apply for a temporary electricity connection, but if their request is denied, they will use generators to power their electricity needs. Before this, many protesters had modified their trolleys to make them liveable in summer and even equipped these with air-conditioners. "We somehow tolerated the cold nights in winter, sleeping on the road or in trolleys at the Delhi borders, but the fast approaching summer poses more problems, especially the threat of getting vector-borne diseases due to mosquitoes. That is why we began construction of a house for protesting farmers. It was started on Wednesday and we will move in, once it is ready," the farm organisation president Manjit Singh Rai told TOI. The farmers have decided not to go back until the government repeals the contentious farm laws and when we have to stay put for an indefinite period, the house will provide some relief from the summer heat, said farm organisation general secretary Satnam Singh Sahni.

The Times of India

2021-03-12

Chandigarh