Punjab farm leaders hold talks with central team in Chandigarh
Union ministers Shivraj Chouhan, Piyush Goyal and Prahlad Joshi meet representatives of Samyukt Kisan Union (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee.
Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, food and public distribution minister Prahlad Joshi and industries and commerce minister Piyush Goyal began a fresh round of talks with representatives of 28 farmer unions that form the Samyukt Kisan Union (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee in Chandigarh on Wednesday.
The meeting got underway at the Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration in Sector 26, Chandigarh.
The last meeting between the farmers and the three ministers was held in Chandigarh on February 22.
Earlier, Kisan Mazdoor Morcha leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said the farm unions expect the central delegation to resolve their long-pending issues, including legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP) for crops.
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 have said that a legal guarantee for MSP can be given with an estimated annual outlay of ₹25,000-30,000 crore.
On February 14, 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 February 13 last year after security forces did not allow them to march to Delhi. Farmer leader Jagjeet Singh Dallewal has been on indefinite fast since November last year, pressing the Centre to meet the demands of the farmers.
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.