Tikri: Farmers at Tikri border, who have been raising pucca brick and mortar structures at the protest site since the last one week to escape the scorching summer heat, said they would continue to carry on with the constructions.
No complaint has been registered against these constructions so far, police officials told ThePrint.
Construction of concrete structures have, however, been suspended at Singhu border, the epicentre of the farmers protest. Two FIRs were also registered at Kundli police station Sunday in the matter.
Following this, farmer organisation Samyukta Kisan Morcha in a statement had said no further construction of permanent structures would be carried out at the borders.
But the protesting farmers at Tikri don’t seem to be up to date with this decision.
Anil Mittal, national president of Kisan Social Army, one of the farmer organisations at Tikri, said more than 25 pucca houses made of bricks and mortar have come up at the protest site, and they plan to construct 1,000-2,000 similar structures until farmer leaders ask them to stop, which hasn’t happened yet.
“This is just a temporary shelter for us, we’ll demolish it whenever we leave. However, right now harsh summers are upon us, to survive the heat we need cooler, AC, or other arrangements. For this, we’re helping our farmer brothers construct these structures,” he said.
About Singhu, SKM leader Darshan Pal told ThePrint, “Only one concrete structure was coming up at Singhu, construction of which has stopped.”
“The meeting attended by farmer organisations agreed that we won’t allow further construction at any border, and this decision will be followed,” Pal said.
SHO, Bahadurgarh police station, Inspector Sunil Kumar, said they haven’t received any complaint so far.
“We have not received any complaint about construction at Tikri so far, and will take necessary action if we do,” he told ThePrint.
Also read: Sikh separatism fighting existential battle but mishandling farmer protest can add fuel
‘Can’t survive the heat in tents or on the roads’
As temperatures in the capital have begun to soar, farmers insisted they have no better way of protecting themselves.
A lot of tractors and trolleys have returned to the fields to help with farming, so the farmers came up with a better alternative.
“We somehow survived the cold by snuggling into blankets, but we can’t survive the heat in tents or on the roads,” Umesh Daiiya, a protesting farmer from Sonipat, told ThePrint.
“This isn’t even a permanent structure, it is a jhopdi made of bricks and is not damaging the road in any way. All we’ll do is plaster the walls with mud to keep the temperature cool,” he added.
‘Don’t come to us like CID’
The farmers have already made necessary arrangements to deal with the scorching summer by keeping refrigerators, coolers and ACs ready.
They maintained that they are not damaging public property or obstructing movement of people by building pucca houses along the roads, and asked if Delhi Police’s actions haven’t been damaging to public property.
“Don’t come to us like CID, why don’t you ask them (Delhi Police) what they’re doing. They’ve blocked the road, which is hampering the movement of ambulances as well, they’ve dug up the roads to prevent us from entering the capital. Why is that tolerated?” said Jaiveer, a farmer from Titoli near Rohtak.
(Edited by Debalina Dey)
Also read: Farmers’ protests are the birth pangs of a more urbanised India