Chandigarh: Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Saturday said a meeting between a central team and farmer leaders was held in a cordial atmosphere and the next round of talks will take place in Chandigarh March 19.
A fresh round of talks between the protesting farmers and the central team led by Chouhan to discuss the formers’ various demands, including a legal guarantee for MSP on crops, was held here on Saturday evening.
Union ministers Pralhad Joshi and Piyush Goyal also attended the meeting on the Centre’s behalf.
Speaking to the media after the meeting, Chouhan said the discussions with the farmers took place in a cordial atmosphere.
The central team placed the farmers’ welfare program, which is the priority of the Narendra Modi government, before the farmers during the meeting, Chouhan said.
“We heard the views of farmer leaders Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Sarwan Singh Pandher. A very good discussion took place. The talks will continue and the next meeting will be held in Chandigarh on March 19,” the minister said after the meeting that lasted for nearly three hours.
However, Chouhan did not take any questions from the media.
Chouhan along with Joshi earlier reached the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Public Administration — the meeting venue — at 6:05 pm to meet the 28-member farmers’ delegation.
Punjab Cabinet ministers Harpal Singh Cheema, Gurmeet Singh Khuddian, and Lal Chand Kataruchak were also present at the meeting.
The farmer leaders said after the meeting that they presented facts to back their demand for a legal guarantee for MSP on crops.
“If government’s policy and intentions are clean, legal guarantee for MSP can be given with an estimated outlay of Rs 25,000-30,000 crore per annum,” farmer leader Abhimanyu Kohar claimed.
“The central team sought details of data presented by the farmers for discussions with experts. We will furnish them within a week,” Kohar added.
Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) coordinator Sarwan Singh Pandher said, “We shared the advantages of legal guarantee for MSP. It will stop farmer suicides as they will have a guarantee of getting the minimum price for their crop.
“When farmers and labourers get the right prices, the purchasing power in the markets also increases. So what’s the harm in giving a legal guarantee for MSP, we asked at the meeting.”
“They (central team) did not say that they were not ready to frame a law to give legal guarantee for MSP. They said more discussions are needed before taking a big decision like this (on MSP),” Pandher added.
The farmers’ delegation comprised Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Pandher, among others.
Dallewal (70) has been on a fast-unto-death at the Khanauri border point between Punjab and Haryana since November 26, 2024, to press the Centre to accept the agitating farmers’ demands.
The farmers under the banner of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha have been camping at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13 last year after security forces did not allow them to march to Delhi to press for their various demands.
Besides a legal guarantee for MSP, the farmers are demanding debt waiver, pension for farmers and farm labourers, no hike in electricity tariffs, withdrawal of police cases against farmers, and 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 are also part of their demands.
