Centre, farmers sit for fourth round of talks

Union Ministers meet farmers in Chandigarh to discuss demands, including MSP guarantee, as protests continue near Haryana-Punjab border.

The fourth meeting between Union Ministers and farmer representatives to deliberate on their demands, including a legal guarantee for minimum support price on crops, began here on Sunday even as protesting farmers from Punjab continued to camp near the inter-State boundary with Haryana.

Union Ministers Arjun Munda, Piyush Goyal and Nityanand Rai and farmer leaders Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Sarwan Singh Pandher are attending the meeting among others. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann is also attending the meeting

The three meetings held earlier had been inconclusive.

Farmers from Punjab have been camping on two stretches – Shambhu-Ambala and Khanauri-Jind – on the inter-State boundary between Haryana and Punjab, since February 13 as their ‘Delhi Chalo’ march was stopped from entering Haryana amid elaborate security arrangements with multi-layer barricades.

The Kisan Mazdoor Morcha and the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) — the two umbrella bodies of around 200 farmers’ and farm labourer unions — had given the call for the ‘Delhi Chalo’ march as they planned to lay siege to the national capital to press for the fulfilment of their demands.

The protest has started to draw support from other farmer outfits and ‘khap’ panchayats as well. The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), the umbrella body of farmer unions that spearheaded the 2020-21 farmers’ protests against the Centre’s farm laws, as well as the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ugrahan), one of the largest outfits in Punjab, announced that they would hold day-and-night protests and demonstrations in front of the residences of BJP MPs, Ministers and MLAs in the State from February 20 to 22, and make all toll plazas “free” in support of the farmers’ demands.

The decision was taken in a meeting held in Ludhiana. The representatives of 34 organisations of the SKM (Punjab) out of 37 attended the meeting. The representatives of BKU (Ugrahan) also attended the meeting.