Farmers Movement Archive

Punjab farmers reject proposal in writing, say no parallel talks

BATHINDA: The protesting farm organisations have asked the central government to desist from holding parallel talks with farm groups who are not part of their agitation and stop defaming the protesters. This was communicated to the Centre in the letter written by farmer organisations’ representative Darshan Pal on behalf of Sanyukt Kisan Morcha to agriculture ministry joint secretary Vivek Aggarwal on Wednesday. The letter was sent in response to the draft proposal given by the central government on December 9, a day after the farm representatives had met Union home minister Amit Shah for an informal meeting. The farm bodies had rejected the draft proposals on December 9 itself. Speaking to TOI, Darshan Pal said, “After the impasse in talks with central ministers on December 5, farm representatives had asked the government to say either ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to repealing of agri-laws. After that the central government had sent a draft proposal on December 9. Though we had rejected that draft the same day, we sent the letter rejecting those proposals on Wednesday.” “We have also asked the government not to engage in parallel talks with groups who are not in protests and not to defame the protesting farm groups by name calling,” he further said. The farmer organisations who are holding protests at Singhu, Tikri and Gazipur borders on the outskirts of Delhi, had said the previous day that they will send a written reply to Centre’s proposals. The letter sent to the agriculture ministry reiterates rejection of proposals about some amendments in the legislations suggested by government, including written guarantee of minimum support price and registration of anyone dealing in private mandis. BKU (Kisan) representatives from Uttar Pradesh had met central agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Tuesday and submitted a memorandum about MSP. Tomar had thanked the farm organisation for reposing faith in the government. Earlier, too some farm representatives from Uttrakhand and Haryana had met the agriculture minister and had praised the agri-laws. Some ministers, including commerce minister Piyush Goyal had been making claims that ultra left activists had infiltrated the protest. Before that allegations of some ‘Khalistanis’ barging into farm protests too had been levelled.

The Times of India

2020-12-17

Chandigarh