New Delhi: The 7th round of talks between farmers’ organizations and three Union ministers on Monday to resolve the ongoing deadlock over agricultural laws were also inconclusive. Now the next meeting will be held on 8 January. Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar; Minister of Railways, Commerce and Food Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for Commerce and MP from Punjab Som Prakash held talks with representatives of 40 farmer unions at Vigyan Bhawan.
Since the sixth round of talks held at the same location on December 30 ended on a positive note with the government agreeing on two points, the government will try to persuade the farmers to end their agitation by adopting a middle path or forming a committee to resolve the issue.
Krantikari Kisan Union President (Punjab) Darshan Pal, Bharatiya Kisan Union’s Jagjeet Singh Dalewal and Balbir Singh Rajewal, Jamhuri Kishan Sabha Punjab General Secretary Kulwant Singh, and Bharatiya Kisan Union (Uttar Pradesh) President Rakesh Tikait are among the 41 farm union leaders particpating in the meeting.
The agitating farmers have already announced they will take out a tractor rally towards Delhi on Republic Day, besides a series of programmes in a bid to intensify their protest if their demands to withdraw the three contentious farm laws enacted in September and a written assurance on the Minimum Support Price (MSP) are not met.
Modalities for the repeal of the three Central farm acts and putting the mechanisms for a remunerative MSP as recommended by the National Farmers’ Commission into a legally guaranteed entitlement for all farmers and all agricultural commodities is the major agenda of the meeting.
In the sixth round of talks the government agreed to the farmers demand to exclude them from the penal provisions of the ‘Commission for the Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Ordinance, 2020’ and changes in the draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020 to protect the interests of farmers.
