Farmers' protests: Farmer unions will be meeting today to deliberate over government’s fresh offer to hold the implementation of farm laws for one and a half years which was proposed to them in the tenth round of talks and will announce their decision. Even though the farmers are firm on their demand of a total rollback, it is expected that some consensus can be reached as farmers termed the proposal "worth considering".
Terming the proposal "worth considering", the farmer leaders said that representatives of all the farmer organisations will hold consultations and then apprise the government about their stand during the 11th round meeting scheduled to be held on Saturday.
Farmer leader Shivkumar Kakka, who has been a part of all the 10 meetings held with the government at Vigyan Bhawan was quoted by IANS as saying "We do not trust the committee, but the government has offered to put the laws on hold... It is definitely a matter to consider. We will discuss this and eventually try to form an opinion."
Another farmer leader Kavitha Kuruganti said the government also proposed to submit an affidavit in the Supreme Court for suspending the three farm laws for a mutually-agreed period and set up a committee, PTI reported.
Kulwant Singh Sandhu of Jamuri Kisan Sabha was also quoted by PTI as saying, "The government is on backfoot and it has started yielding ground to us."
Earlier during the meeting, the government also again offered to amend the three laws but farmer leaders stuck to their demand for a complete repeal and alleged that the Centre was avoiding discussion on a legal guarantee for MSP.
The government on Wednesday proposed to suspend the three contentious farm laws for 1-1.5 years and set up a joint committee to find an amicable solution in the interest of the farming community. The two sides decided to meet again on Friday after the union leaders hold their own internal consultations.
Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, are protesting at various border points of Delhi for over a month now against the three laws. Farmer groups have alleged these laws will end the mandi and MSP procurement systems and leave the farmers at the mercy of big corporates, even as the government has rejected these apprehensions as misplaced.
Earlier in the day, a group of farm union leaders met top officials of Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh police to discuss the route and arrangements for their tractor rally on January 26 to protest against the three farm laws.