Donation drives in Punjab, Haryana feed lakhs at Delhi borders

“In an hour or two of the announcements, villagers line up to fill the vehicles with sufficient food items. So far, we have not had to visit door-to-door to seek donations in any of the villages,” said Sukhwinder Singh, president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union Ekta Ugrahan of Harigarh village in Barnala.

Every evening, since protests against the Centre’s new farm laws began at Delhi’s borders, farmers and their leaders in Barnala district, sit down to shortlist a few villages in their area. They make a count of the food items that they are short of.

Winter essentials being distributed as farmers continue their protest against farm reform laws at Singhu Border near Delhi, on December 6, 2020. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

In the selected villages, the list of food items are announced from gurdwaras — outside which trucks and tractors scheduled to leave for the Delhi borders stand parked.

“In an hour or two of the announcements, villagers line up to fill the vehicles with sufficient food items. So far, we have not had to visit door-to-door to seek donations in any of the villages,” said Sukhwinder Singh, president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union Ekta Ugrahan of Harigarh village in Barnala.

Everyday it is a different village, with Singh saying that no village has had to donate a second time so far.

The donations, he said, are always plenty. “On Thursday, my village sent about 800 litres of milk, apart from grains and vegetable,” said Sukhwinder Singh. Another village pooled in Rs 4 lakh in cash in a single day. The cash was used to purchase items like cooking oil, sugar and tea from grocery stores.

This has been the common trend ever since farmers began camping at Delhi’s borders. They say that donations in food and cash from back home has been so overwhelming that on occasions they have had to ask Haryana farmers to hold their donations for harder days.

“We are asking Haryana farmers to store their grains for times when our supply lines may be obstructed. Yet, they have been sending fresh fruits and some transporters and businessmen have been paying for our fuel along the way. We have requested them not to make any vegetable and milk donations, since we have enough of these,” said Krishan Singh, a block president of Bhartiya Kisan Union Ekta Ugrahan in Barnala.

Most of these trucks and trolleys are those that come laden with new farmers to Delhi’s borders, as some old protesters leave for their villages from time to time. “We don’t have to waste fuel in ferrying the food. Trucks bringing in farmers, bring in our food,” said Sukhwinder Singh.

Sometimes, a truck is filled entirely with cauliflower. Sometimes it is carrots and at other times they contain mixed items, ranging from vegetable and grains to milk and paneer.

And when farmers cannot find their own vehicle to ferry the goods from any particular village, some buses plying from Punjab towns to Delhi or Haryana graciously pitch in.

“There are buses bringing in quintals and quintals of milk and vegetables to us for free. They just inform us their last destination near Delhi and we send trucks and tractors to that point to bring the goods till the borders,” said Sukhwinder Singh.

Among other items which reach the farmers every day are newspapers. These newspapers, mostly in Punjabi, are then distributed to each truck parked along the border.

Apart from the donations received from their own villages, farmers at the Haryana and Uttar Pradesh borders are also being provided Langar Sewa by the various Gurdwara committees in Delhi. Manjinder Singh Sirsa, president of Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, for example, said that his committee was capable of feeding even one lakh farmers for six months if needed.

At Ghazipur-Ghaziabad (UP Gate) border too, farmers have been bringing raw materials, vegetables and utensils on their tractors and other vehicles from their villages in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. To buy other items, like cooking oil, spices and cooking gas, as well as hiring confectioners on a daily basis, the Bhartiya Kisan Union and the farmers have been pooling in money.

“The daily supply of vegetables and milk is mostly done from Jewar and Mathura, while we have brought ration on our tractors,” said BC Pradhan, spokesperson of BKU (Bhanu unit).

Mangeram Tyagi, chief secretary of BKU’s NCR unit, said that the ration available at the Delhi-UP border was sufficient to feed hundreds of farmers till at least January 26.