New Delhi: A panel of Union Ministers convened the fourth round of discussions with farmer leaders in a bid to address their demands, including securing a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP). This meeting comes in the wake of the ongoing protest, with thousands of farmers staying put at the Punjab-Haryana border.
The panel, comprising Agriculture and Farmer Welfare Minister Arjun Munda, Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, and Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai, convened at the Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration in Sector 26, Chandigarh, for the crucial round of talks. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann also participated in the discussions.
Previous meetings were held on February 8, 12, and 15, but they failed to yield a resolution.
A day ahead of the crucial meet, the farmer leaders emphasised on their demand for an ordinance on giving a legal guarantee to Minimum Support Price (MSP) and said the entire country was looking forward to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address the grievances of the farmers.
“If the government wants resolution of farmers' protest, then it should bring an ordinance with an immediate effect that it will enact a law on MSP, then discussion can proceed further. It (Centre) can bring the ordinance overnight, if it wants to,” news agency PTI quoted farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher as saying.
He further said that if the Centre meets their demands, then the farmers will call off their protest and that the “ball was now in the Centre’s court”.
Meanwhile, Bhartiya Kisan Union (Charuni) took out a tractor march in Haryana and BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) held dharnas outside the houses of three senior BJP leaders on Saturday to show solidarity with the farmers protesting at the Punjab and Haryana borders.
The Haryana-based Gurnam Singh Charuni-led faction took out tractor marches Kurukshetra, Yamunanagar and Sirsa, PTI reported.
Apart from a legal guarantee for MSP, the farmers have been demanding implementation of Swaminathan Commission's recommendations, pension for the farm labourers, debt waiver, and withdrawal of police cases, among others.