Chandigarh: A meeting between a Central team led by Union Minister Pralhad Joshi and farmers’ representatives to discuss their various demands, including a legal guarantee for MSP on crops, was held here cordially on Friday and the next round of talks has been slated for February 22.
The over two-and-a-half-hour meeting with the 28-member delegation from the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha was held after a year-long protest by farmers.
It was also attended by Punjab Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian, the state’s Minister for Food and Civil Supplies Lal Chand Kataruchak and other state government representatives.
The two outfits have been spearheading the ongoing farmers’ protest at Shambhu and Khanauri on the Punjab-Haryana border for the past one year.
Following the meeting at the Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration here, the Union minister of consumer affairs, food and public distribution said the talks were held in a cordial atmosphere and another round of talks will be held on February 22.
Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will lead the central team in the next meeting, Joshi said, adding that he would also be a part of that talk.
“Details about the steps taken by the Narendra Modi government for farmers’ welfare were shared with their leaders in today’s meeting,” he added.
Talking to reporters separately, farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who is on an indefinite fast, too said that the meeting was held in a positive atmosphere and another meeting will be held next week on February 22.
He was brought to the meeting venue from the Khanauri protest site in an ambulance. Farmer leader Kaka Singh Kotra said it took four hours for Dallewal to reach Chandigarh.
Dallewal, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) convenor, has been on an indefinite hunger strike at the Khanauri border point since November 26 to press the Centre on various demands, including a legal guarantee for MSP on crops.
About Friday’s meeting farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said, “We discussed in detail the issue of legal guarantee to MSP for crops in the meeting.”
Another farmer leader Abhimanyu Kohar said earlier in the day that the government should frame a law to give a guarantee for MSP. He also said the farmers are convinced that a law guaranteeing MSP on crops will benefit every section of the country.
Prominent leaders who were part of the farmer delegation are Sarwan Singh Pandher, Abhimanyu Kohar, Kaka Singh Kotra, Sukhjit Singh, PR Pandian, Arun Sinha, Lakhwinder Singh, Jaswinder Longowal, MS Rai, Nand Kumar, Balwant Singh Behramke and Inderjit Singh Kotbudha.
On January 18, a delegation of senior officials from the Union agriculture ministry, led by Joint Secretary Priya Ranjan, invited representatives from the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha for a meeting to discuss their demands.
Dallewal had agreed to take medical aid following the invitation but refused to end his fast unto death.
Four rounds of meetings took place between central ministers and the protesting farmers in February 2024 but the talks remained inconclusive.
A panel of three Union ministers — Arjun Munda, Piyush Goyal and Nityanand Rai — held talks with farmers’ representatives on February 18 last year.
At that time, the farmers had rejected the Centre’s proposal of buying pulses, maize and cotton crops at MSP by government agencies for five years.
Kisan Mazdoor Morcha leader Pandher on Thursday said they would make efforts to nudge the Centre towards resolving the farmers’ issues.
Farmers, under the banner of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, have been camping at the Shambhu and the Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13 last year after security forces did not allow them to march to Delhi to press for their various demands.
Besides a legal guarantee for crop MSP, the farmers are demanding a debt waiver, pension for farmers and farm labourers, no hike in electricity tariffs, withdrawal of police cases and “justice” for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence.
Reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act 2013 and compensation to the families of farmers who died during a previous agitation in 2020-21 are also part of their demands.
PTI
