This farmer in Jalandhar serves langar among have-nots

Ajay Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, April 6

From visiting every slum in the city to all penniless individuals in villages, Gurpreet Singh Atwal (32), a Bhogpur-based farmer, has hardly left any place in the district, where he hasn’t served food for free. Tirelessly working from March 22, since the curfew was imposed, Atwal has been uninterruptedly lending a helping hand to serve humanity.

Earlier on Janta Curfew, he along with his cousins and friends came out on roads to offer free refreshments to people involved in emergency services. He said after the Janta Curfew was announced, he had already planned that he would serve food and water among all those on the frontline, helping the government in making the curfew successful. While the district wore a deserted look, he offered around 300 food packets and water to the mediapersons and cops deployed on every street and road for restricting people’s movement. However, after covering a few areas, he realised that there were other people such as daily wage labourers, migrants, beggars and slum dwellers, who were sleeping empty stomach after the enforcement of curfew.

Subsequently, with the help of women in his family and neighborhood, he started cooking food for the underprivileged every day and it’s been 16 days since he has been visiting places and serving langar (community food) among the have-nots.

“In the beginning, we utilised the ration and vegetables that we had stored from our fields, but when fellow villagers heard about our service, they also started donating ration and vegetables. We daily distribute around 500-600 food packets in Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala along with the youths from Bhogpur and Jalandhar. Besides, we also receive many calls from residents who run out of ration, following which we supply them with dry ration, including wheat, rice, pulses and oil,” said Atwal, who has been given curfew pass by the administration. Taking precautionary measures, he and his team never forgets to wear gloves and masks while preparing and distributing food.