Farmers Send Trucks Of Firewood For Protesters To Fight Delhi's Harsh Winters, Unseasonal Rains

As the farmers' protest continues to intensify in and around the national capital amid heavy rains and harsh winters, farmers from nearby areas have come to the rescue of those protesting against the centre's contentious farm laws at Ghazipur border.

Farmers sent trucks loaded with firewood from Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Gautam Budh Nagar, Bagpat and other areas of western Uttar Pradesh for protesters camping at Ghazipur border.

"We have plenty of firewood back home and our brothers are shivering in rain and cold in Delhi. So we decided to keep resupplying firewood. So far, we have supplied over four tractor trolley full of firewood," Ranveer Tewatia, a farmer from Meerut said.

Farmers are battling harsh winters in Delhi with unseasonal rain, thunderstorms wreaking their makeshift tents and rainwater soaking firewood.

"We lit campfire to brave the cold nights. Since the unexpected rains, we lost almost half of our firewood but farmers from nearby areas came with loads of wood and now we are spending our nights again around the campfire," Satender Tomar, a protester at Ghazipur said.

Eight rounds of inconclusive talks with the government have failed to end the deadlock with farmers even as the ongoing protests at Delhi's borders cross 40 days.

Even as the Sanyukta Kisan Morcha's tractor rally saw the participation of thousands of protesters in Gautam Buddh Nagar on Thursday, at least 15 farmers from western Uttar Pradesh districts sat on a hunger strike in Noida.

"Today, 15 farmers belonging to the BKU (Lok Shakti) sat on a hunger strike to demand the repeal of the new farm laws and to demand legalisation of the minimum support price (MSP) for crops," the union's spokesperson, Shailesh Kumar Giri, said.

The hunger strike by 11 BKU (Bhanu) protesters continued on Thursday at the Chilla border, where the Noida-Delhi link road remained partially shut due to the protests.

Meanwhile, nearly 400 tractors and another 100 four-wheelers had participated in the tractor rally from the Ghazipur border in Ghaziabad to Palwal in Haryana. "There was no law and order situation due to the tractor rally on the expressway," the police said.

Thousands of farmers have been protesting at Delhi''s borders against the centre's contentious farm laws. The protesting farmers fear that these laws would scrap the minimum support price system, leaving them at the "mercy" of big corporates. However, the government has claimed that the new laws will boost the income of farmers.

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