Next round of talks between protesting farmers, Centre tomorrow

Chandigarh: A fresh round of talks between protesting farmers and the Centre will be held here on Saturday evening to discuss their various demands, including a legal guarantee for MSP on crops.

Farmers had earlier sought that the next meeting be held in Delhi. However, the Centre has scheduled it in Chandigarh.

Joint Secretary, Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Purna Chandra Kishan, has sent a letter addressed to farmer leaders Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Sarwan Singh Pandher regarding the meeting.

The letter dated February 19, states, "this is in continuation of the previous meeting with the leaders of SKM (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) which was held on February 14 in Chandigarh.

"In this sequence, a meeting with the ministers of the Government of India and the Government of Punjab regarding the demands of farmers' unions has been organised on February 22 at Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Public Administration in Chandigarh. You are cordially invited to the meeting..," the letter in Hindi stated.

Earlier on February 14, a meeting between a central team led by Union Minister Pralhad Joshi and farmers' representatives was held here, with both sides then saying it was held in a cordial atmosphere.

The meeting was held in the backdrop of agitating farmers' various demands that include a legal guarantee of MSP on crops.

The discussion during the meeting on February 14 came after a year-long protest by farmers, centred around the demand of the farmers for a legal guarantee of minimum support price on crops.

While Joshi spoke about the steps taken by the Narendra Modi government for the welfare of the farming community, farmer leaders had said they strongly put forth their views backed by facts.

The February 14 meeting, in which farmer representatives of two forums spearheading the agitation at Shambhu and Khanauri border points took part, was also attended by Punjab Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian, state Food and Civil Supplies minister Lal Chand Kataruchak and other state government representatives.

Joshi had said that another round of talks with the farmers' representatives will be held here in which Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will lead the central team. Joshi had said he would also be part of that meeting.

Dallewal had also taken part in the last week's meeting.

Prior to February 14 meeting, four rounds of meetings took place between central ministers and the protesting farmers in February 2024 but the talks remained inconclusive.

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.