Farmers Movement Archive

Centre, farmer unions to hold sixth round of talks today, protesters firm on demand for repeal of laws

The Centre and the protesting farmer unions will hold talks on Wednesday, the sixth round of dialogue between the two sides to resolve the deadlock. The talks will be held in Delhi after the farmer unions agreed to restart negotiations.The Centre had sent an invitation on Monday to these unions for holding the talks. The farmers are sticking to their position that the parleys will only be on the modalities of repealing the three new farm laws and giving a legal guarantee on the minimum support price (MSP) among other issues.Ahead of the crucial talks, Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Piyush Goyal on Tuesday met senior BJP leader and home minister Amit Shah.Tomar, the minister for agriculture, and Goyal, the minister for food and consumer affairs, and MoS commerce and Industry Som Parkash have been representing the Centre at the talks with the farmers. Tomar had said on Monday that he is hopeful of an early solution to the impasse.Total five rounds of talks, including one each on December 1, 3 and 5, have failed to break the deadlock between the two sides. The sixth round was originally scheduled for December 9, but talks were called off after an informal meeting of home minister Shah with some union leaders failed to reach any breakthrough.Farmer unions have deferred to Thursday their proposed tractor march against the contentious agriculture laws, so that the rally does not clash with their talks with the government.Thousands of protesting farmers, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, have been camping at three Delhi border points - Singhu, Ghazipur and Tikri - for over a month, demanding a repeal of the three farm laws and legal guarantee for MSP.The opposition has also been pressurising the government to find a solution to end this impasse. While the Congress is demanding an immediate repeal of the three laws, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) accused the Centre of bulldozing the farm laws without consulting states.NCP chief Sharad Pawar said that the opposition parties will take a call on their future course of action on Wednesday if the government fails to resolve the impasse.The three laws being opposed by the protesters are Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020, and Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020 which were passed by Parliament in September.(With inputs from agencies)

Hindustan Times

30-12-2020

India