Punjab: Key meet between farmers, Centre today

Farmers have been camping at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13 last year

A 28-member delegation of farmers will participate in a meeting to be held on February 14 with the Centre to resolve the agitating farmers’ issues, including legal guarantee of minimum support price for crops. This comes after four rounds of meetings between the Centre and the agitating farmers that were held in February last year.

Four rounds of meetings had taken place between the Central ministers and protesting farmers on February 8, 12, 15 and 18 last year, but talks had remained inconclusive. (HT Photo)

A joint statement issued by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, which are spearheading the ongoing stir, on Thursday evening said a 28-member delegation of both the forums will participate in the meeting with the Centre.

The composition of the central panel is still unclear. “There are reports that Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan won’t be part of the panel but we are hopeful. We will attend the meeting and put forward our points. All efforts will be made to find a solution to our demands,” senior farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher told reporters after a kisan mahapanchayat at Shambhu border. The mahapanchayat was held to mark the completion of one year of the ongoing agitation.

Farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who is on an indefinite fast, said he will also attend the meeting. Punjab finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema said the state government has not yet received any formal or informal invitation for the meeting. However, he would be willing to attend the meeting, if invited.

Farmers, under the banner of the SKM (Non-Political) and Pander-led KMM, 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 on the MSP for crops, the farmers are demanding a debt waiver, pension for farmers and farm labourers, no hike in the electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases and “justice” for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence.

On January 18, a delegation of senior officials from the Union agriculture ministry, led by joint secretary Priya Ranjan, had invited the representatives of SKM (Non-Political) and Pandher-led KMM for a meeting to discuss their demands on February 14 at Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration Punjab (MGSIPA), Sector-26, Chandigarh.

Four rounds of meetings had taken place between the Central ministers and protesting farmers on February 8, 12, 15 and 18 last year, but talks had remained inconclusive. Following the invitation to the meeting, Dallewal had agreed to take medical aid but refused to end his fast unto death.