Farmers use traffic signal’s power to charge mobile phones as they make UP Gate their ‘home’

Farmer Jaspal Singh arrived at the UP Gate protest site from Bijnor airing his grievances against the Centre’s recently enacted farm laws. By Sunday afternoon, however,

Farmer Jaspal Singh arrived at the UP Gate protest site from Bijnor airing his grievances against the Centre’s recently enacted farm laws. By Sunday afternoon, however, he had another problem: his mobile phone was soon running out of charge.

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Someone directed him to the nearest traffic signal below the UP Gate flyover, which had been switched off ever since the police blocked the road in view of the protest. There, they had improvised a few plug points from the signal’s power controller. They now had round-the-clock power enough to charge mobile phones.

While initially these protesters found it difficult to charge their phones, over the last week they have found different ways to charge them.

A voluntary organisation on Saturday evening also placed another mobile phone charging system drawing electricity from the traffic controller. “This charges faster than our electricity switch board. It also has different plug-ins for different types of mobile phones,” Singh said.

Also powering the phones are tractors.

The UP Gate protest was on its ninth day on Sunday. Farmers call it the “Kisan Kranti Dwar” after the many protests that had been held there. In 2018, they had clashed with police as they marched to the Capital over loan waivers, power supply and unpaid dues, among others. For added measure, they also called in painters who painted the flyover pillars with the “new name”.

“We have also put-up banners with pictures of our founder leader Baba Mahendra Singh Tikait. The UP Gate area seems like home,” said Rajbir Singh, state vice-president of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU).

To keep the farmers hooked to the agitation, a group of youngsters arrived on Sunday and setup a temporary library from which they offered books to protesting farmers to read and return free of cost.

“We have brought books with about 100 different titles and these include books about farm laws, Munshi Premchand and Bhagat Singh among others. Anyone willing to read is given a chair where he can sit comfortably and read at length. The books are low priced and if anyone wants to purchase, we are offering books at nominal price of ₹5 to ₹10,” said Runi (single name), a youngster from Baraut in Baghpat who setup the temporary library below the UP Gate flyover on Sunday.