New Delhi: Small-time scrap dealers had a field day at the Singhu border with a huge quantity of leftovers, including bamboo poles, tarpaulin sheets, plastic and wood pieces, lying up for grab as the protesting farmers headed home on Saturday after a successful culmination of their year-long siege.
The around-five-km stretch of the highway on the Haryana side of the Singhu border in Sonipat's Kundli was a pit stop for the farmers, who had erected temporary structures, including accommodation facilities with washrooms and kitchens.
Since daybreak, hordes of residents of slums and scrap dealers swooped down with men, women and children picking up bamboo poles, tarpaulin sheets, pieces of wood, plastic and iron bars and carrying those back on carts.
A few of them even got lucky, with the protesters returning to Punjab giving them blankets, woolens, clothes, money and other items of daily use.
Javed, a middle-aged man originally from Assam, was seen collecting plastic sheets along with his wife and daughter.
"I will sell these. We used to get food at the langar here but it is over now," Javed, who is currently out of work, said.
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Nearby, a group of kids was busy collecting bamboo poles, pieces of plastic and other such stuff, and tying those into a bundle. "I got a blanket from a Sardarji uncle," said 14-year-old Samee, showing his sack filled with old clothes and woolens.
Kundli houses many factories, large warehouses and workshops that employ thousands of migrant workers from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and other states.
Due to the combined impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdown, topped by the year-long siege by the protesting farmers, life has been tough for most of them with lack of jobs and other sources of income.
"I came early and got some stuff. It will fetch me around Rs 500," said a woman who refused to reveal her name. "My husband used to work at a factory and now, he works as a labourer," she said when asked why was she collecting junk.
Amid the hustle and bustle at Singhu, convoys of tractor trolleys, cars and other vehicles carrying the protesters rolled down towards various parts of Punjab and Haryana, from where they had reached the protest site in the last week of November, 2020, demanding a repeal of three farm laws enacted by the Centre.
The protesters were also a source of free meals for the poor and needy of the area for the last one year.
"Langar is our tradition and we fed these kids and others. Now, the almighty will take care of them," said a protester from Mohali while giving Rs 20 to a girl called Priya, who was carrying an oil-filled bucket.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of over 40 farm unions,decided to suspend the year-long movement on Thursday, after the Centre repealed the contentious farm laws.
It has also accepted the Centre's assurances regarding its demands concerning a legal guarantee of a minimum support price (MSP) for crops, compensation to the kin of the farmers who died during the protest and withdrawal of the cases registered against the farmers during the year-long protest.
PTI
