In the first signs towards a resolution to the concerns of protesting farmers, the Center and farmer representatives reached consensus Wednesday on two issues: increasing electricity rates and penalties for stubble burning. However, the meeting, which lasted more than five hours, did not manage to get out of the deadlock on the main controversial issues of the repeal of three agricultural laws and a legal guarantee of a minimum subsistence price (MSP).
This was the sixth round of talks between representatives of more than 40 farmers’ organizations and the central government after a three-week hiatus. After the talks, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, who was accompanied by Food and Rail Minister Piyush Goyal and State Minister for Commerce Som Parkash, said the two sides reached a agreement on two issues.
Discussing the two issues, Tomar said: “The first issue was an ordinance related to the environment. The unions were concerned about the inclusion of farmers along with those of Parali (stubble). Both parties agreed to exclude the farmers. “
“Farmers feel that if a reform is introduced in the Electricity Law, they will suffer losses. The unions wanted the electricity subsidy given to farmers by the states for irrigation to continue. A consensus was also reached on this issue ”, he added.
The government will meet with farmers’ leaders on January 4, Tomar said, adding that discussions on the three farm laws and the MSP will continue in the next round of talks. He also said that the talks took place in a cordial atmosphere and asked the farmer leaders to send the elderly, women and children home given the freezing winter season.
The minister said that union leaders continued to insist on the repeal of the three agricultural laws, but the government side tried to explain the benefits of the laws to them and sought to know the specific problems that farmers face. He also maintained his position on supporting the MSP, saying the government has already said it is ready to give a written guarantee.
After the meeting, the leader of the farmers’ union Kalwant Singh Sandhu said that Wednesday’s talks were mainly focused on electricity and stubble burning, while the next meeting on January 4 would focus on the MSP guarantee and the three agricultural laws.
Before the meeting, Union Minister Som Prakash had said: “Today’s meeting with farmers will be decisive. We want you to celebrate the New Year at home, with your family, and we go to the meeting with an open heart and mind. The government will try to solve the problem so that people can return to their homes. “
However, some union leaders said that farmers in some parts of the country are being forced to sell crops, including rice, below the MSP as market rates have fallen and claimed that the agitation will continue until the government agrees. your demands.
In his letter on Tuesday, Samyukt Kisan Morcha, the umbrella organization representing farmers’ unions, said modalities to repeal the three contentious laws and a legal guarantee on the minimum subsistence price (MSP) should be on the agenda. . El Morcha also said that the agenda should also include amendments that will be made and notified in the Ordinance of the Commission for the Management of Air Quality in the National Capital Region and Adjacent Areas, 2020 to exclude farmers from its provisions. criminal.
Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab and Haryana, are protesting at various borders in the national capital for more than a month against these three new laws. While the government has presented these laws as major agricultural reforms aimed at helping farmers and increasing their incomes, protesting unions fear that the new legislation has left them at the mercy of large corporations by weakening the MSP and mandi systems.
With PTI inputs
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