Punjab is enthusiastically gearing up for ‘January 26 tractor march’ at Delhi. Even as the farmers and their families are camping at the Delhi borders — notwithstanding bone-chilling winters — for almost two months now, the villagers, gurdwaras, common men, employees, and others are doing their bit to make this “march” successful.
Making their contribution in the farmers’ ongoing struggle demanding repeal of the Centre’s three new farm laws, the people of Faridkot Kotli village in Sangat block of Bathinda district have prepared fiber sheets to protect the protesting farmers from water cannons, lathis, rubber or plastic bullets in case of any altercation with the security forces.
The sarpanch (village head) of Arakwas village near Lehragaga in Sangrur district has issued a diktat to all villagers to ensure participation of one family member in the tractor march else face fine.
Not staying behind, the gurudwaras in Punjab’s several villages are also making announcements encouraging people to come out in large numbers to join the January 26 tractor march and contact the gurdwara managements.
That was not all! Training to the womenfolk to drive tractors, conducting rehearsals for the march, modifying tractors with increased engine capacity, ensuring availability of diesel tanks, spare-parts, tools, mechanics, among other things are part of the hectic preparations going on for the “mega show”.
“I have asked all the villagers to take part in the tractor parade. If any person from the village does not take part in the parade along with his tractor, he will be fined from Rs 2,100 to Rs 5,100. Besides, if any member of a household does not participate in the march, he will have to pay Rs 500 as fine to the panchayat,” said Arakwas village sarpanch Ranjit Kaur.
“To save our farmer-brothers from water cannons and plastic bullets or police lathis, we have come up with this safety guard made of fiber sheet covering the body’s front portion, with a white transparent screen covering face and belt to tie it from waist,” said a villager from Faridkot Kotli village in a video going viral.
The villager has also appealed to the people to come forward and make their contribution by making such safety guards, or improving it further, in huge quantities.
As per the decision taken by the farm leaders in Delhi, the tractor parade will be carried out with the National Flag on tractors on the Delhi’s Outer Ring Road on Republic
Day, causing “no disruption to the official Republic Day ceremony”.
On state’s roads, one can see fleets of tractors moving in discipline — as a part of “rehearsal” for the big day and also of those reaching Delhi border for the January 26 march. On Sunday, several farmers left from Ludhiana for Delhi to participate in a tractor parade. “We are leaving for Delhi with our tractors and will continue to do so till January 24. Around 11,000 tractors will be making a move to Delhi from Ludhiana itself.
In total, one lakh tractors will participate in the Republic Day tractor parade from Ludhiana, Amritsar, Faridkot, and Bhatinda districts,” said a farmer.
In Amritsar, a large cavalcade of tractors led by Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee (KMSC) left for Delhi on January 12. Another KMSC group plans to leave for Delhi on January 20. Similarly, BKU (Ekta Ughrahan) led a protest in Bathinda city and another on Bathinda-Chandigarh highway last week, where even locals joined in large numbers.
As per plans, most of the farmers would be reaching the national capital on January 21-22 for the Republic Day tractor march.
