Aid pours in for protesting workers

Sumeer Singh

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, January 2

Helped poured in from different quarters for the protesting contractual employees of the Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant, who are sitting on an indefinite protest outside the District Administrative Complex.

Villagers and members of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ugrahan) lent support in cash or kind to ensure that the protesters and their family members continue protest.

The members of the contractual workers’ union of the thermal plant visit four to five villages every day and collect money to make arrangements for serving langar, tea and providing quilts and mattresses at the protest venue.

Apart from providing financial assistance, people are offering tea, flour, pulses, vegetables, biscuits, milk and sugar among others edibles.

A langar committee has been formed by the workers’ union to ensure that protesters are fed on time.

The langar service begins early at 6 am with serving of tea and then at 9 am, breakfast is served till 11 am. Lunch is served from 2 pm to 4 pm and dinner from 7 pm to 9 pm.

All arrangements for milk and water tanks at the protest venue are made by BKU members.

Around 1.5 quintals of milk has already been consumed since the strike began yesterday. There are four water tanks stationed at the venue.

Darshan Singh, head of the langar committee, said, “Around 400 protesters were served food yesterday and that number is expected to swell further. To keep the biting cold at bay, tea is being served at regular intervals. And for the night, we have made arrangements of quilts and mattresses at the protest venue. We have also made arrangements for tarpaulins in case if it rains in the coming days. We will intensify our fight against the arbitrariness of the government and stay here until our demands are not fulfilled.”

Lack of washrooms

Meanwhile, protesters had a harrowing time when they did not find any place to urinate or to relieve themselves. But as and when protesters started urinating in the open on roadsides, a washroom was opened at the District Administrative Complex.