E-Paper
Centre reaches out to farmers ahead of Feb 13 march to Delhi
Union ministers meet farmer representatives in Punjab and Haryana to discuss demands ahead of planned march to Delhi. Farmers seek MSP, debt waiver, jobs for farmers' families, withdrawal of criminal cases. Haryana tightens security at borders with Punjab. Protest in Delhi brings traffic to standstill, called off after assurances from UP government. Haryana government asks Centre to deploy paramilitary forces. Prohibitory orders imposed in Ambala and Sonepat. No permission sought for protests, legal action threatened.
Days before several farmer groups in Punjab and Haryana were to hold a planned march towards Delhi, three Union ministers arrived in Chandigarh on Thursday to meet their representatives to discuss their demands. Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann was also present at the meet.
The farmers had announced a march to Delhi on February 13 to press the Centre for several demands, including minimum support price (MSP) for all crops, a waiver of debt on farmers, and jobs for the families of farmers who were killed during the year-long farmers’ agitation at the Capital’s borders between November 2020 and December 2021, as well as the withdrawal of criminal cases registered against the protesters. The Punjab farmer groups have also received support from certain quarters in Haryana.
Anticipating the protest march, the Haryana government has tightened security at its borders with Punjab, and kept security forces on high alert, officials said.
On Thursday evening, minister for food, public distribution and consumer affairs Piyush Goyal; agriculture minister Arjun Munda; and minister of state for home Nityanand Rai held meetings with Mann and the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU)-Dallewal led by Jagjit Dallewal, and a breakaway faction of BKU (Ekta-Ughrahan).
“We don’t want that agitation should take place… These matters must be sorted out through dialogue. The deliberations were held in a congenial atmosphere and the three ministers sympathetically listened to the demands of farmers,” Mann said, expressing hope that more such discussions take place in coming days. During the first round of talks, a general consensus emerged on rolling back the cases registered against farmers during the agitation against draconian laws, added Mann.
Dallewal, meanwhile, said, “The government said they will examine all our demands. They offered to form a committee which was rejected by the farm bodies as in the past too such panels have been formed but without yielding any result.”
“We told the central ministers that we are willing to sit again with them by February 12 to find a solution and after that we would continue with our protest plan,” he added.
The development took place on the same day as a protest by a clutch of farmers’ groups brought traffic to a standstill on Delhi’s border with Uttar Pradesh for much of the day. The agitation was called off at 6pm, following assurances from the Uttar Pradesh government and Noida authority, which said they would form a panel to address the farmers’ demands.
In Haryana, the state government asked the Centre to deploy 64 companies of paramilitary forces to deal with any law-and-order situation that may arise during the march.
Anticipating unrest, the Ambala district administration imposed prohibitory orders till further orders, said deputy commissioner Shaleen (goes by one name). The development took place a day after prohibitory orders were imposed in Sonepat.
Ambala superintendent of police Jashandeep Singh Randhawa said no farmer outfit has sought permission for any protest, and legal action will be taken against those protesting without prior permission.
