Fresh round of talks between farmer leaders, Centre underway in Chandigarh

Chandigarh: A fresh round of talks between protesting farmers and a central delegation to discuss their various demands, including a legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP) for crops, is underway here.

Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Consumer Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, and Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal reached the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Public Administration in Sector 26 here around 11.50 am on Wednesday for the meeting.

Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema and Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian are also part of the meeting.

Ahead of the talks, farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said a 28-member delegation of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha will take part in the meeting.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha are spearheading the farmers' stir.

Pandher said the farmers expect the government to resolve their issues.

"We have come here for the meeting with a positive mind. Some decision should come out after the meeting. We expect that the deadlock over the MSP guarantee law will end and the talks will move forward," he told reporters.

The farmers' delegation comprising Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Sarwan Singh Pandher reached the meeting venue earlier.

Dallewal, who has been on an indefinite fast since November 26 last year and is on medical aid, came in an ambulance. He said they were expecting the Centre's response on the data presented by farmers in support of their claims.

The last meeting between the farmers and the central delegation was held here on February 22. The meeting was attended by Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Consumer Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, and Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal.

In the last meeting, the central team sought data from the farmers to back their claims for a legal guarantee for MSP for a discussion with experts.

The farmers said a legal guarantee for MSP can be given with an estimated outlay of Rs 25,000-30,000 crore per annum.

On February 14, a meeting between a central team led by Union minister Joshi and farmers' representatives was held here.

Prior to this meeting, four rounds of meetings took place between central ministers and the protesting farmers in February 2024 but the talks remained inconclusive.

The protesting farmers have been camping at Shambhu and 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 their demands.

Besides a legal guarantee for MSP, the farmers are demanding a debt waiver, pension for farmers and farm labourers, no hike in electricity tariffs, withdrawal of police cases against farmers, justice for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence in Uttar Pradesh, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, and compensation to the families of farmers who died during a previous agitation in 2020-21.