December 16, 2020 11:34:04 am
Farmers protest against central farm laws on the Singhu, New Delhi border on December 14, 2020 (Express photo: Abhinav Saha)
Farmers’ unions, who are protesting at the Delhi borders against recently enacted farm laws, sent a written response to the government on Wednesday, rejecting their Proposal of December 9 in which he offered important concessions.
In an email to Vivek Agrawal, Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Agricultural Welfare, Sanyukt Kisan Morcha leader Darshan Pal said: “With reference to the proposal and the letter received from you, we want to inform the government that the unions of farmers held a joint meeting the same day and discussed their proposal and rejected it because it was the written format of the proposal offered verbally by the government representatives on December 5, 2020 ”.
Pal also asked the government to stop smearing the peasant movement. “We want the government to stop smearing the farmers ‘movement and stop parallel negotiations with other farmers’ organizations,” he said.
An official from the Ministry of Agriculture confirmed The Indian Express that the government received a written response from the farmers’ unions. However, he declined to answer questions about whether the government would send an invitation to speak with farmers.
The written response from the protesting agricultural unions came a day after the Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that the government was awaiting a written response on its proposal sent to farmers.
“We are awaiting the opinions of the agricultural unions on the issues they want to talk about so that we can discuss again and bring the matter to a conclusion,” Tomar said in an interview with The Indian Express on Tuesday. The government will invite protesting farmers to hold talks the day after they return to give their response to the concessions offered, Tomar added.
When asked about the next steps to defuse the standoff with farmers, Tomar said informal talks were taking place with some agricultural leaders and that he was awaiting a response from them on the government proposal sent on December 9.
“I am ready to send you an invitation once you review the changes proposed by the government,” he said. Tomar, however, was clear that the government would not repeal the agricultural laws.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd
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