Express News Service
NEW DELHI: With summer approaching fast and daily temperatures rising, protestors at the Ghazipur border of the national capital are busy making arrangements to beat the heat. Tents that were spread on the service lane near the Delhi- Meerut Expressway, have moved under the shade of the flyover. Winter arrangements inside the tents are now being replaced with jute pads to keep the floor cool.
“Like winter, we will also face the heat. Arrangements are made for everyone. We have requested the local administration for the connection of electricity. Hopefully, it will be provided. But there is no going back or withdrawing the agitation. We are here to stay,” said Bhartiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait.
For protection from heat, arrangements have been made for a large tent in front of the stage, so that people can sit there and listen to the speakers. Under this shade, numbers are slowly increasing. Volunteers are providing water bottles to the protestors and requesting them to remain organised.
Most of them spend the day inside tents and come out only after sunset. Krishna, a farmer from Uttarakhand, is on guard duty at one of the entrances to the protest site. “I am here day and night. If people are leaving, almost the same number is coming in to support the cause.
The temperature is definitely rising but farmers can handle that,” said Krishna, who probes everyone who enters and asks them to remove their masks for a moment to see their face. In order to avoid the heat from the concrete road, many tents have been set up at a slightly elevated place. In the days to come, all the tents at the site will be place in the same way.
Menwhile, donations for coolers and fans are being collected. People are contributing, as they want to do ‘sewa’ and help the protestors, informed Gurudayal Singh, one of the members of the organising committee. To manage the stress, a meditation centre has also sprung up at the site run by a group of volunteers from the spiritual group called Sahaja Yoga. Scores of farmers are taking part in this. At food counters, water-based cooling refreshments are offered to every passerby.