CHANDIGARH: The farmers' agitation along the Delhi borders has given birth to a four-page bi-weekly newsletter Trolley Times in Hindi and Punjabi.
The newsletter is the brainchild of a team of six youngsters. It has been named so since it was planned and designed on a tractor-trolley. The youngsters say this is their answer to those who dismissed the farmers as illiterate. The first edition was rolled out on Friday.
Talking to The New Indian Express, Ajaypal Natt, one of the members of the team, said, "We decided to start this four-page newsletter as both the protest sites at Singhu and Tikri are around 20 kilometres each and it is difficult for all the people to reach the stage and know what is happening and most of them are also not on social media. So, we brought out this newsletter so that everyone comes to know what is happening."
"The other important reason was that people have made remarks that farmers were illiterate. We want to show them that if farmers can do anything and are not illiterate. Five days ago the idea to start a bi-weekly newsletter was conceived during our discussions and it was envisaged and designed on the tractor–trolley of Narinder Bhinder a farmer. So, we decided to name it Trolley Times.
ALSO READ | The long march: Indian version
"Then we formed a team of volunteers who approached farmer union leaders, farm law experts and farmers at the two borders with this idea and got a good response. We also shared this idea on social media. We got the first edition printed from a local printing press of Delhi. 2000 copies have been printed and we have spent about Rs 11000 from our own pocket. The response has been very good. We never expected this. Now for the next edition, we plan to print 10,000 copies," he said.
Ajay said, "The first page of the paper will carry the editorial as well as the daily developments and announcements, the second page will have photographs and artwork and the third page will have news and views from across the world in support of the farmers' agitation while the fourth page will be for light reading as it will have interesting events unfolding at the agitation sites such as wrestling matches between Punjab and Haryana or classroom set up to educate the poor students."
ALSO READ | 2021 isn't 1991: We must reform our reforms
"We have also gone digital are on all social media platforms; Facebook, Telegram and Twitter," he added.
The front-page headline of the first edition is Judaange, Ladaange, Jeetange!
Besides Ajay, the other members of the team are Surmeet Maavi, a scriptwriter, Navkiran Naat, a dentist, Gurdeep Singh Dhaliwal, a documentary photographer, Jassi Sangha, a professional videographer, and Narinder Bhinder, a farmer.