NEW DELHI: One day before the next round of talks between the Center and the farmers protesting against the three new agricultural laws, Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Piyush Goyal I met the BJP leader and the Minister of the Interior Amit shah on Tuesday.
The sources said they discussed and finalized the government’s position for Wednesday’s meeting, a source said.
Agriculture Minister Tomar, Railway Minister Goyal and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry Som Parkash have been representing the Center in dialogues with farmers.
More than a month has passed that thousands of farmers, especially from Punjab, Haryana and parts of Uttar Pradesh, have camped on the borders of Delhi seeking the repeal of the three agricultural laws enacted in September by the Center. They have threatened to intensify their commotion in the coming days if their demands are not met.
On December 30, the government invited 40 protesting farmers’ unions to the next round of talks on all relevant issues to find a “logical solution” to the current stalemate on the three laws.
The government invitation followed a proposal made by the unions last week to hold talks on Tuesday on agendas that include modalities for repealing the three new laws.
So far, five rounds of formal talks have been inconclusive. The last round took place on December 5, while the sixth round of talks originally scheduled for December 9 was suspended a day after an informal meeting of the Shah with some union leaders failed to make any progress.
The government has presented these laws as major agricultural reforms aimed at helping farmers and increasing their incomes, but protesting unions fear that the new legislation will leave them at the mercy of large corporations by weakening the MSP and mandi systems.
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