Farmers’ Protest: The seventh round of talks between farmers’ organizations and three union ministers to resolve the deadlock against agricultural laws for more than a month began on Monday afternoon. Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Railway, Commerce and Food Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for Commerce and MP from Parliament Som Prakash started talks with representatives of 40 farmer unions at Vigyan Bhawan.
Sources say that the meeting started with a tribute to the farmers who lost their lives during the current demonstration. Earlier, the sixth round of talks between the government and farmer organizations was held on 30 December. During that time, two demands were made to keep stubble burning out of the category of crime and to continue the concession on electricity. However, no consensus has yet been reached on the legal guarantee regarding repeal of the three agricultural laws and the provision of minimum support price (MSP) for the purchase of crops.
The demonstration continues on different borders of Delhi
Thousands of farmers have been protesting against the three agricultural laws of the Center on different boundaries of Delhi for more than a month. Most of them are farmers from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. In addition to the severe cold in the national capital and surrounding areas, despite heavy rains and waterlogging at the protest site in the last few days, the farmers have remained firm on their demand. Regarding the new agricultural laws implemented in September 2019, the central government says that this will be a big improvement in the agricultural sector and will help in increasing the income of farmers. But the protesting farmers fear that these laws will weaken the system of MSP and market and they will become dependent on big business houses.
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Agriculture Minister and Defense Minister met on Sunday
Sources said that Agriculture Minister Tomar had met Defense Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday to discuss the strategy of the government for early resolution of the current crisis. During this time all possible options were discussed to find a middle way to solve the crisis. The government has said that the farmers’ fears are baseless and have refused to repeal the laws. Many opposition parties and people from different regions have also supported the farmers, while some farmer organizations met the Minister of Agriculture in the last few weeks and supported the three laws.