Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, protesting against the three agricultural laws are camped at various Delhi borders for over a month now. The mercury plunged in the national capital over the last few days with rains lashing too. The rains have resulted in water-logging at protest sites over the last couple of days. However, the farmers stand their ground.
While help has been pouring in for the farmers from different organisations and individuals, warmth reached them all the way from Kashmir in form of kangirs distributed by an Delhi-based NGO from J&K, the Outlook reported.
Kangris are traditionally used by Kashmiris to combat the cold in the harsh winter. These are basically earthen pots enveloped in wicker and use live coal and ash to keep warm. Some 50 kangris were sent by the NGo to provide respite to senior citizens protesting the farm laws despite the cold in northern India.
A Kashmiri trader was quoted as saying by the Outlook that he was approached by someone who wanted kangris in Delhi. He arranged the firepots at 'reasonable prices' and sent them to the concerned NGO.
The kangris have been sent on 'experimental basis' to help the elderly farmers protesting in the cold as someone had suggested them that kangris could get respite to those suffering in the cold there.
Meanwhile, the seventh round of talks between protesting farmers and Centre also ended inconclusively on Monday as farmer groups stuck to their demand for the repeal of three farm laws, while the government listed out various benefits of the new Acts for the growth of the country's agriculture sector. The next round of talks has been scheduled for January 8.
Enacted in September 2020, the government has presented these laws as major farm reforms and aimed at increasing farmers' income.
During the meeting, the government listed various benefits from the three laws, enacted a few months ago, but farmers kept insisting that the legislation must be withdrawn to address their apprehensions that the new Acts would weaken the MSP and mandi systems and leave them at the mercy of big corporates. The government has maintained that these apprehensions are misplaced and has ruled out repealing the laws.