India News | Wrapping Up: Khalsa Aid to Donate Items Used at Farmers' Protest Sites to Needy in Nearby Villages

New Delhi, Dec 9 (PTI) From distributing food to providing medical help to installing foot massagers, non-government organisation Khalsa Aid left no stone unturned to help the protesting farmers at Delhi's borders feel at home.

Now, when the farmers have decided to suspend the protest and return home, the NGO plans to donate the appliances and articles used at the protest sites among the needy in nearby villages.

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These include portable toilets, air conditioners, washing machines, fans, coolers, chairs, blankets, mattresses, drums and clothes etc.

NGOs played a big role in managing the largest protest site at the Singhu border. The long, dusty stretch of the Delhi-Karnal road turned into a makeshift town, equipped with all amenities one could think of.

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Khalsa Aid's India director Amarpreet Singh told PTI that they have decided to conduct a survey to identify the households in need of help.

"Over the last year at Singhu, we realised there are a lot of people in nearby villages who need help. While going through our inventory, we found we have a large number of items that could be of use to them.

"They may not have supported the protest but this is our moral responsibility. And, we think this is the right thing to do," he said.

Singh revealed that the NGO spent over Rs 10 crore it received in donations (no foreign donations) to make farmers feel at home. "The in-kind donations we received to help our farmers could be worth more than Rs 30 crore," he said.

"We opened Kisan Malls at Singhu and Tikri borders that had everything from toothbrushes to jackets and shawls. When we saw that people did not have access to proper toilets, we bought portable ones. Our volunteers provided laundry services and foot massages to the elderly," Singh said.

Khalsa Aid said it distributed over 40,000 towels and undergarments among the farmers at Singhu and Tikri borders.

"This has been one of our largest projects and we tried to do our best," Singh said.

He, however, rued the way a certain section of people targeted the NGO, calling it anti-national.

"A local resident who had provided us power supply disconnected it due to pressure from the administration. The National Investigation Agency wanted to look into our accounts and we received notices that scared our families," he recalled.

Those police inquiries and tags are a thing of the past now, Singh said.

"We are going have a get-together for all our almost 500 volunteers to celebrate this occasion. It's been a long fight," he said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)