Farmers convince labourers to stay back for paddy season

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 20

Farm labourers who had come to the city in November and were to leave by April are now stranded here due to the lockdown. Now with the paddy season approaching, farmers have urged them not to go back.

Farmer Kulwant Singh said he had convinced his 15 labourers not to go back and instead earn here. “Earlier, they also wanted to go and even approached us for registration in Shramik trains, but since they have not received any message yet, they have made up their mind to stay back and earn here,” he said. The labour had come in the sugarcane season.

Another farmer, Sukhwant Singh, said,” I want to give them advance so that they stay here till this paddy season. But I am also a little wary that they will leave the moment they get the message from the administration to board the train. This is a tough situation for the farmers and everyone is doing their bit to make sure that the labour stays here and they (farmers) don’t have to suffer any problem in the paddy season,” he said.