Farmer leaders to meet Central team for next round of talks

A fresh round of talks between protesting farmers and a Central delegation will be in Chandigarh today, Wednesday to discuss their various demands, including a legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP) for crops.

The meeting will be held at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Public Administration in Sector 26 from 11.00 am onward.

Farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said a 28-member delegation of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha will take part in the meeting. The farmers expect the government to resolve their issues, he said.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha are spearheading the farmers' stir.

The last meeting between the farmers and the Central delegation was held on 22 February. The meeting was attended by Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, consumer affairs minister Pralhad Joshi, and commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal.

In the last meeting, the Central team sought data from the farmers to back their claims for a legal guarantee of MSP for crops for a discussion with experts.

The farmers said a legal guarantee for MSP can be given with an estimated outlay of Rs 25,000-30,000 crore per annum.

On 14 February, a meeting between a Central team led by Union minister Joshi and farmers' representatives was held in Chandigarh. Prior to this meeting, four rounds of meetings took place between Central ministers and the protesting farmers in February 2024, but the talks remained inconclusive.

The protesting farmers have been camping at Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since 13 February last year after security forces did not allow them to march to Delhi to press their demands.

Besides a legal guarantee for MSP, the farmers are demanding a debt waiver, pension for farmers and farm labourers, no hike in electricity tariffs, withdrawal of police cases against farmers, justice for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence in Uttar Pradesh, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, and compensation to the families of farmers who died during a previous agitation in 2020-21.