UP Gate: Elderly, women not ready to go back despite adverse weather

Ghaziabad: Despite the chill, farmers protesting the new central farm laws at the UP Gate site on Saturday said that they were not returning till the laws are repealed.

Ghaziabad: Despite the chill, farmers protesting the new central farm laws at the UP Gate site on Saturday said that they were not returning till the laws are repealed.

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Their leaders said they conveyed the government’s request to have women, children and senior citizens outside at the protest to return and sit out the extreme cold unseen in 15 years.

“No one is ready to go back,” said 85-year-old Bilender Kumar from Charoli village in Gautam Budh Nagar. He is covered in a blanket and stays in a small temporary tent at the UP Gate flyover. “I have been here since the protest started (November 28) and will go home only when the government accepts our demands. A farmer is used to adverse weather like summers, winters or rain and will not get affected.”

Like him, many senior farmers and women have come to UP Gate from western UP, Uttarakhand and Punjab.

“We now have two blocks of women-only camps at UP Gate and on Friday their count was 200. A few will go back home and will return in a couple of days. Neither rain nor adverse weather has not affected them and we are all geared up to help them,” said Ravneet Kaur, who is co-ordinating the ‘women-only’ camp at UP Gate. “Despite the weather conditions, more people are coming to UP Gate and coming prepared with blankets, woollens, etc. to stay here for the protest. It seems that no one is ready to go back.”

The farmer leader said that the protesters have not paid heed to the request put up by the government during the last meeting.

“In fact, it rained today (on Saturday) and they were seen holding up their tents and plugging leaks. No one is ready to go back home. When we request them, some even jokingly say that their wives will beat them up and will not let them in if they go empty handed (without the repeal of three new laws),” said Rakesh Tikait, farmer leader and national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Kisan Union.

The officials of the Indian Meteorological Department have predicted that there are chances that the region will receive light to moderate rainfall on January 4 and 5.

“There is also a prediction of hailstorm on January 4. Light rain is also predicted for January 3. This is due to western disturbance which will have impact up to January 6. As a result, the minimum temperature is likely to range about 8-9 degrees Celsius and likely to fall down to 5-6 degrees Celsius after the western disturbance ends. The wind speed is also likely to pick up in range of 25-3kmph,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, head of Indian Meteorological Department’s Regional Weather Forecasting Centre, New Delhi.

The farmers light up wood to keep themselves warm and many even staying inside in their tents for hours on end.

“Till the time the two key demands of repeal of laws and a new law on MSP is accepted, the farmers will not go home. This fight is now for ‘sammaan’ (honour) for us and we will not bow down. We had not come here to go back with amendments as suggested by the government,” said Ram Pal Singh, an elderly farmer from Amroha.

Tikait said that farmers having stayed for over a month are not in a mood to go back till the government repeals the three laws.

“During the last meeting there was no consensus on two key demand but we decided to keep them aside and discussed two other smaller issues which were accepted by the government. Now, the two key issues will come up during the talks on January 4. Even if there is no decision on January 4 we will continue talks and get government to accept our demands. Till that time, everyone is staying back,” he added.