Free water and food lift spirits

Dubai: It took a while for the amnesty seekers who queued up outside the Indian consulate to realise that drinking water bottles and packets of sandwiches that were being distributed were free of cost.

"I was very pleased when I realised that all that food and water was for free. It was quite a respite to get a bottle of drinking water," said Bhanu, an amnesty seeker who had been waiting in line outside the consulate gates.

Holding a food pack in one hand and a bottle of water in the other, Jignesh Kumar, an amnesty seeker said that people are often afraid to break the line and go to the mosque located nearby for water.

He said: "This is because those who break the line lose out on their place in the queue and have to stand at the end of the long queue."

Food and drinks were distributed by a team of seven employees from Halcrow yesterday at mid-day. Around 150 packets of food and the same number of drinking water bottles were distributed.