Farmers at the Punjab-Haryana Shambhu border during their ‘Delhi Chalo’ protest, near Patiala district, on February 18, 2024.
| Photo Credit: PTI
After the fourth meeting between Union Ministers and farmer representatives to deliberate on their demands, in which the government proposed to give a guarantee on procuring five crops on Minimum Support Price (MSP), farmers on February 19 asserted they will discuss the proposal with domain experts and take a decision even as the ‘Delhi Chalo’ march is on standby for now.
“We will discuss the proposals offered by the government with agriculture and legal experts besides farmers, and then take a call on it, and convey our decision to the Centre. As far as our Delhi march is concerned, we have put it on standby for now. On February 21, however, we will peacefully start our march. We will try that before February 21 we put our points before the government and discuss some remaining issues,” said farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher of Kisan Mazdoor Morcha.
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After the fourth round of meeting between Centre and farmers on Sunday night, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said the meeting was held cordially in a positive direction with new ideas surrounding how to take the work done in farmers’ interest in the last 10 years to be taken forward. “Discussions were held on farmers demands and we have presented a road map. Farmer representatives brought forward some topics and in them, barring three-four issues, a consensus appeared to be emerging on the rest of the issues with innovative thinking that would help farmers of Haryana, Punjab, and rest of the country,” he said.
“A proposal was discussed in which the government agencies like NCCF and NAFED will get into a contract and buy produce pulses — arhar, tur and urad — and corn from the farmers on MSP. There will be no limit on the quantity. Similarly, we proposed that the Cotton Corporation of India will enter five-year agreement with farmers to buy cotton crops at MSP. We believe that cotton should be revived in Punjab. Farmer leaders said they will get back by tomorrow on the proposals. We hope farmers will come with a positive reply by tomorrow. The next round of meeting could be then held. I urge farmers to call off their protest,” he said.
Replying on a pointed question of giving a legal guarantee for MSP on crops, Mr. Goyal said “There are some issues which are policy matters and need time and wider consultations. The general elections are nearing so on such issues deliberations would continue.”
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said that farmers of the State can adopt cotton and maize only if they get the MSP. He said that detailed discussions were held on this topic and the guarantee was sought in this regard adding that an agreement for the purchase of these crops should be made. This, he said will help give a major push to crop diversification in the country. The Chief Minister said that the mobile internet services in around five districts of the State have been suspended, which is adversely affecting the studies of the students. He said that these days exams are going on and online study is being done but the suspension of internet services is highly condemnable.
Meanwhile, 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. Mr. Mann is also attending the meeting.
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.
In Haryana, Bharatiya Kisan Union (Charuni) president Gurnam Singh said it held a meeting with different farmer outfits and ‘khap’ panchayats, and it was decided that a strategy would be finalised depending on the outcome of the meeting between the Centre and the farm leaders.
