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New Delhi: Hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday released the second installment of the PM Kisan Samman Yojna and said that the government is open for talks, the protesting farmer unions met to discuss the government’s proposal for dialogue over the ongoing deadlock over the three contentious farm laws.
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According to reports, the farm unions will be meeting again on Saturday, where they will decide on the Union Government’s invitation to continue the talks.
Meanwhile, the Union ministry of agriculture and farmers’ welfare is also expecting the next round of meeting to take place in the next two-three days, according to some officials.
One of the protesting union leaders, who did not wish to be named, told news agency PTI that their demand for a legal guarantee on minimum support price will, however, remain the same.
“We have another meeting tomorrow to take a decision on the Centre’s letter. In this meeting, we may decide to resume talks with the government as it appears through its previous letters that it has not been able to understand our issues so far,” he said.
He also said the government’s letters have no proposals, the reason why farmer unions may decide to hold fresh talks and make it understand their demands.
“MSP cannot be separated from our demand for repealing these three laws. In these laws, there is mention of private mandis. Who will ensure that our crop is sold at fixed MSP if it is not there?” another leader asked.
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The farmer unions met over the Central Government’s letter on Friday but failed to land on a decision.
The meeting came after, Vivek Aggarwal, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, on Thursday wrote to farmers and invited them for fresh talks. In his letter, Agarwal also wrote that it would not be “logical” to include in the agenda any new demand related to the MSP, which is out of the purview of the three new farm laws.
The Sanyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of 40 unions, on Wednesday, asked the government not to repeat the proposal of meaningless amendments and also said that the government should come up with a “concrete offer” if they want to continue the talks.
Meanwhile, on Friday, the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, demanded that the Union Government to arrange for special trains so that farmers across the country can join the protest in Delhi.
The three farm laws that were enacted in September, earlier this year was projected by the government as a major reform in the farming sector, that will remove middlemen and allow farmers to sell their products anywhere in the country.
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