Union minister Amit Shah on Saturday requested agitating farmers on Saturday to halt their protests against the recently passed farm bills and assured them that the Centre will discuss every issue that has been troubling farmers.
According to news agency ANI, Shah said, “To farmers protesting at the Delhi-Haryana border and Punjab border, I would like to tell them that the central government is ready to discuss all their issues over a meeting called upon by the agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar on December 3. We are ready to hear all their concerns and demands.”
Earlier union minister for agriculture Narendra Singh Tomar had also requested farmers to halt their protests against the recently passed farm bills and asked opposition parties not to politicise the issue.
Protesting farmers also relented after assurances were made by the union minister. Bharatiya Kisan Union general secretary Harinder Singh told ANI on Saturday that they will halt their protests at Singhu in Delhi-Haryana border and will conduct meetings every day at 11 am to discuss the course of the protest.
Singh said, “It has been decided that we will continue our protest here and will not go anywhere else. We will meet at 11am every day to discuss our strategy.”
{{/usCountry}}Singh said, “It has been decided that we will continue our protest here and will not go anywhere else. We will meet at 11am every day to discuss our strategy.”
{{/usCountry}}Agitating farmers had taken out a Delhi Chalo march demanding rollback of the three recently passed farm bills. Farmers on Friday broke barricades at several checkpoints across the Delhi-Haryana border. Earlier on Thursday, farmers and Haryana police personnel clashed with each other at Sambhu and Karnal border points following which police fired water cannons and lobbed tear gas shells.
Farmers are agitating against the three bills - Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill; the Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill. The farmers groups believe that these three bills will affect the MSP system and allow private and multinational companies to make profits off farm yields.