NGOs donate toilets, geysers, tents for protesting farmers
Dec 20, 2020
New Delhi [India], December 20 : US-based Sikh NGOs donated toilets, geysers, and tents for farmers protesting against the farm laws and sleeping in the open at Tikri border and other places on Sunday.
"Due to lack of basic facilities at protest sites, we have decided to donate 200 portable toilets and geysers," S P Singh Khalsa, Hoshiarpur Coordinator, Sikh Panchayat Fremont California, told ANI.
He said, "Apart from these, we are also providing 400 geysers. Out of these, 200 have already been provided to farmers at Singhu Border. While 100 are being provided today, remaining will be provided later."
"We assessed what were the needs of the protesting farmers. My organisation is trying to help them as per their needs. They are forced to sleep under the open sky in this winter," Singh further said.
Slamming the government, he said, "The government failed to provide minimum support price to farmers, which they should have. They should have provided facilities of hot water to farmers. Lack of toilet is another issue here. They are forced to stand in lines for almost two-three hours, in this chilly weather. "
"As farmers are forced to sleep on the ground, we are distributing tents to them to protect them from winds," said Gurdal Singh.
Farmers have been protesting on different borders of the national capital since November 26 against the three newly enacted farm laws--Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance, and Farm Services Act, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.
Meanwhile, the Narendra Modi government is reaching out to farmers across the country, with Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar's eight-page letter to protestors being translated into various vernacular languages.
Sources stated that the letter which was written primarily for Hindi-speaking states will now be circulated among the farming community across the country in an effort to garner their support for the Central farm laws and explain the issues in detail in a language familiar to them.
