JHAJJAR: A retired customs officer residing at Balor village on the Tikri-Bahadurgarh border has provided two acres of his agricultural land to a group of agitating farmers from Amritsar to grow vegetables.
“These farmers have been camping adjacent to my fields for the last four months. Earlier, I provided them with the facilities of bathing, toilets, besides offering them milk and food on many occasions. Recently, they approached me to take the land on rent for cultivation to meet the shortage of vegetables. But I gave them land free of cost on humanitarian grounds as they are fighting the battle for the entire farming community,” said Nar Singh Rao.
Rao, who owns four acres of agricultural land, said the farmers could use the land till their agitation ended.
“We are prepared for a long haul. Since we have no other work here except participating in the protest, we decided to grow vegetables such as bottle gourd, pumpkin and peppermint etc to meet the daily demand. The residents of Haryana have been extending every kind of help for the last four months, but the supply of vegetables has gone down for the last couple of days,” said Shamsher Singh of Amritsar.
He said they had ploughed the field and asked kin back home to bring vegetable seeds. The vegetables would be ready to use in 45 days. Thereafter, these would be distributed to the farmers at Tikri, he added.