Farmers' stir: Haryana govt panel holds talks with agri body over Tikri border blockade

A senior official said the meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere and work on reopening of roads would continue.

A team of senior officials of the Haryana government on Tuesday held a meeting with farmers protesting three agri laws of the Centre for almost a year along the Tikri border in Delhi.

Representatives of the Haryana government and protesting farmers hold talks on Tuesday. (ANI Twitter)

The high-powered committee was headed by additional chief secretary (Home) Rajeev Arora and included director general of police PK Agrawal among others.

Representatives of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, which is spearheading the agitation, took part in the meeting held at Jhajjar’s Bahadurgarh, close to the Tikri border.

Arora later said the meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere though the apex leadership of the SKM was not present in the meeting. “We will continue to work for reopening of roads," he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

He further said the main purpose of the meeting was discussing how to open the road for smooth movement of traffic. Before talking to the Delhi Police, they wanted to know if all roads on the Haryana side were open, Arora added.

The meeting came days after the Supreme Court said the protesting farmers cannot block roads indefinitely.

According to a PTI report, a farmer leader said they conveyed in the meeting that from their side, no road has been blocked. "The entire responsibility to open roads is on the Delhi Police as the way has been blocked towards the other side," he said.

"We told the Haryana government committee that we have not blocked roads," he added.

Representatives of the industry too were present in the meeting. Speaking to reporters, an industry representative said, "The officials listened to our concerns patiently. We told them the industry is facing a lot of problems due to road blockade and some have been forced to shift to other places.”

Last month, the Haryana government decided to form a committee to hold talks with the protesting farmers for clearing the blockade at the Tikri and Kundli-Singhu borders, where farmers have been protesting against the farm laws for the past 11 months.

Haryana home minister Anil Vij had said the committee had been constituted to comply with the apex court orders to open passage on the national highways leading to the national capital.

(With agency inputs)