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Amit Shah, Amarinder Singh to meet tomorrow before talks with farmers
As the previous meetings between the Centre and the representatives of the agitating farmers remained inconclusive, all eyes are on tomorrow’s meeting.
Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh will meet Union home minister Amit Shah on Thursday ahead of the Centre’s much-awaited meeting with the representatives of the agitating farmers. The Shah-Singh meeting will take place at 9.30am. Wednesday’s meeting between farmers and the Centre is crucial as this is the fourth such meeting — all previous meetings being fruitless — over the grievances against the three farm bills passed recently by Parliament. Reports said Amarinder Singh will hold deliberations with Shah in an effort to work out an amicable solution to the deadlock.
Amit Shah, on Wednesday, held deliberations with agricultural minister Narendra Singh Tomar and railways minister Piyush Goyal on ways to dispel concerns over the farm laws.
On its 7th day, the farmers’ protests got a shot in the arm as transporters have also come forward calling for a nationwide strike from December 8 onwards. All-India Motor Transport Congress, the body that has called the strike, represents about 10 million truckers, which will massively hit the movement of essential goods across north India.
The protesting farmers on Wednesday demanded the central government call a special session of Parliament to repeal new farm laws. With traffic in the Capital being thrown out of gear on Wednesday because of the protest, they have also threatened to block other roads of the national capital if their demands are not met.
The ongoing protests led to several divisions and disagreement so far. Brickbats were being exchanged between Amarinder Singh and his Haryana counterpart ML Khattar over the “use of force” by the Haryana Police on the protesting farmers. On the other hand, Khattar demanded that he wanted to talk to Punjab CM over the farmers’ issues as he didn’t want the protest amid Covid-19 pandemic. On Wednesday, Singh and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal got engaged in a verbal face-off over the ongoing protests. Meanwhile, one of the farmers’ organisations — Krantikari Kisan Union — alleged that the Centre was dividing farmers’ organisations by projecting the ongoing protests as Punjab-centric.
Thousands of farmers representing over 30 farmers’ organisations have been agitating in the national Capital since Saturday, responding to the “Delhi Chalo” call against the agri-marketing laws enacted at the Centre in September.
Thursday’s meeting will be the fourth meeting on the issue and the second meeting amid the ongoing protest. Over 35 farmer leaders had held a three-hour meeting on Tuesday at Vigyan Bhavan with the ministerial delegation. Though their first round of talks on Tuesday did not yield a breakthrough but both sides agreed to hold the next round of talks on Thursday.
