Farmers’ protest: Government to hold seventh round of talks with farmer unions today
Union Minister of State for Agriculture Kailash Choudhary has expressed hope that a solution will be found out in the talks.
FollowNew Delhi: The protesting farmers and the government will hold the next round of talks on Monday to try and find a solution to end the stir which has been going on for more than a month. This will be the seventh round of talks between the two sides.
During six rounds of talks on December 30, a consensus was reached on two of the four issues between protesting farmers and the Central government. The consensus was reached on stubble burning and safeguarding power subsidies. However, the deadlock continued over the two main demands, legal assurance on Minimum Support Price (MSP) and complete rollback of the three farm laws.
The farmers launched their protest at three Delhi border points - Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur - on November 26, and have since then braved water cannons, cold wave and now rain. The continuous downpour led to water-logging at agitation venues on Sunday and waterproof tents did not help much, according to the protesters.
On January 2, Samyukt Kisan Morcha, a joint front of almost 40 farmer organisations threatened that farmers will march into Delhi on January 26 with their tractors, trolleys and other vehicles if their demands are not met and also said that a "farmers' republic parade" will take place after the official parade.
Union minister of state for agriculture Kailash Choudhary has expressed hope that a solution will be found out in the talks and agitation against three agriculture laws may end as well.
The working group of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC ) which is an umbrella body of the agitating farmers said that the success of today's talks between the Centre and protesting farmers will depend "entirely on the repeal of the three farm acts".
With concerns that farm laws would weaken the MSP and mandi systems and leave the farmers at the mercy of big corporates, farmers have been protesting at different borders of the national capital for over a month against the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.
Maintaining that the apprehensions are misplaced, the government has ruled out repealing the laws and asked farmer leaders to hold a discussion on clause by clause of the laws.
(With inputs from agencies)
