Farmers Movement Archive

Ravaged by floods, villagers now struggle for their rights

Tribune News ServiceJalandhar, December 26“Haraan ton baad, utthan di aas si, ennan kanoonan ton baad tan sabh kujh chal jana (we had hope to rise up after the floods. But these laws will leave us with nothing),” believes a Shahkot-based farmer.While several villages in the Shahkot and Lohian belts were devastated due to the floods last year, villagers from the same stretch are at the forefront for participating in the protests at the Delhi borders.While many farmers are still coping with the losses they incurred in 2019, forgetting the pain of the past year, they are now extending enthusiastic support to the farmers’ protests. Thousands of farmers from flood-hit villages including Janian, Janian Chahal, Chak Wadala, Gatta Mundi, Mundi Shehrian, Mundi Chohlian, Madhala Channa, Nal, Manak, Gidderpindi and Naseerpur among others, have reached the Delhi borders in hordes to lend support to the ongoing protest.Among the first huge congregations of farmers of about 300 tractor-trailers, trucks and jeeps, which headed out to the Singhu border from Jalandhar recently, a majority were from Shahkot and Lohian blocks. While subsequently huge jathas from other areas began going to Delhi, both residents and citizens from flood-affected areas have been unfazed by the losses they incurred only last year.Salwinder Singh Jania, district president of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, said: “Har vich taan kheti, karobar thapp ho gaye, par asi sochde haan sadi zamin na rahi tan asi ki karange (floods claimed our crops and trades, but we think what will we do if our lands our lost)?” The floods set us back by two to four years. But the ordinances will set us back by generations. It will impact our kids and the coming generations. In villages that were hit by floods, unsurpassed enthusiasm has been witnessed to participate in protests. The Lohian and Shahkot belts, which were impacted by floods, have been among the most active belts where many people are headed for protests in Doaba. Two-two tractor-trailers full of farmers headed out for the border from the flood hit villages where one was expected. Vehicles still continue to join in with rations and help.”Kabal Singh, a resident of flood-hit Gatta Mundi Kasu village who incurred loses worth Rs8 lakh during the 2019 floods, tends to the fields of his associates away in Delhi. From his village, 10 to 12 men have headed to the Singhu border. He says: “It is a unanimous sentiment among farmers of the belt that the ordinances will be more detrimental to the farming community than floods have ever been. We farmers prepared this land which used to be a hostile jungle into a crop producing fertile belt by working hard for years. We have battled many floods. But we have always stood up because subsequent yields would pay dividends. But this law will hamper the very system that paid us. I incurred Rs8 lakh loss in my destroyed wheat crop during floods and my recent cauliflower farm paid me nothing. But after these laws, we will have no hope to get a fair price for our yield. No one knows this better than farmers of this belt.”

The Tribune

2020-12-27