Langar at Tikri to aid of jobless migrants
Ravinder Saini
Tribune News Service
Jhajjar, December 17
Mahendra Pandit, a labourer from Bihar, is without work for the last couple of days. But ever since farmers from Punjab and Haryana started camping at the Tikri border, he has been getting much better food to eat, courtesy langar (community kitchen).
Non-stop langar is being served by the protesters, social activists and political leaders on a 10-km stretch of the Rohtak-Delhi highway from the Jakhoda bypass in Bahadurgarh to Tikri.
Like Mahendra, there are thousands of labourers who are filling their stomachs with these langars daily.
“The farmers’ protest has rendered us jobless as the transportation work has come to a halt due to the road blockade, but we are getting good food in langar. Many a time, farmers call us to partake langar,” said Jairam, a UP labourer, while sitting along with other workers at Labour Chowk.
Rajeev Singh of Kannauj (UP), who works at a footwear factory, said his establishment had been shut for the past three days, and hence he was having langar and spending time with the protesting farmers, who were generous to people like them. Some labourers also take food home for their wife and children, he added.
“Not only migrant labourers, but domestic helps, rag-pickers, vendors, small shopkeepers and people belonging to the lower strata of society are enjoying food in the agitation,” said Akhilesh, a vendor.
Raju, a farmer from Faridkot (Punjab), said they feed over 1,500 persons everyday.
