Govt, farmers reach consensus on 2 issues; next round of talks to discuss MSP on January 4
The sixth round of talks between the government and farmers ended on a fruitful note on Wednesday. The Centre agreed on two of four demands raised by the farmer leaders while the remaining issues including that of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) will be discussed in a meeting scheduled on January 4, 2021.
Farmer leaders said the government agreed to their demands for dropping the penal provisions against farmers in an ordinance relating to stubble burning and to put on hold a proposed electricity amendment law. However, there was no concrete movement on their main demands for repeal of the three farm laws and a legal guarantee for MSP, union leaders said. The unions, however, have decided to postpone their proposed tractor rally, earlier scheduled for Thursday, till the next round of talks.
KEY POINTS
- "Today's talks were held in a very good environment and it concluded on a positive note. Consensus on 2 out of 4 issues was reached between both sides," Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said post a five-hour-long meeting on Wednesday.
- "The first issue was an ordinance related to the environment. Unions were apprehensive about farmers being included along with Parali ones. Both sides agreed to farmers' exclusion. Farmers feel that if reform is introduced in the Electricity Act, they'll suffer loss. Unions wanted the electricity subsidy given to farmers by states for irrigation should continue. A consensus was reached on this issue also," the minister told reporters here.
- Considering the chilly weather in Delhi, Tomar also requested the farmer leaders to send home the elderly, women, and children.
- During the meeting, the government offered to set up a committee on better implementation of the MSP procurement system, but union leaders stuck to their main demand of the repeal of three contentious farm laws.
- "Govt has been saying that MSP will continue. We are ready to give this in writing. But farmers' unions feel MSP should get legal status. So the discussion will continue on the legal aspect of MSP and other issues on January 4 at 2 pm," Tomar said.
- Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab and Haryana, are protesting at various borders of the national capital for more than a month against these three new laws.
- The government has presented these laws as major agriculture reforms aimed at helping farmers and increasing their income, but the protesting unions fear that the new legislations have left them at the mercy of big corporates by weakening the MSP and mandi systems.
- Despite Tomar's repeated assertions, farmers refused to end the agitation. "Government has been saying that we should end agitation & form a committee. But we didn't listen to them. We won't take back our movement. We won't form any committee. We'll discuss MSP in the next meet," Balkaran Singh Brar, Punjab President of the All India Kisan Sabha said.
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