Protesting farmers are apprehensive that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of the MSP and do away with the 'mandi"
A day after the government invited the protesting farmers to resume talks over the three contentious farm laws, farmers on Tuesday sent a letter to the Centre mentioning the agendas to be discussed. The letter addressed to Sanjay Agarwal, Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare states that Wednesday's talks should be held to dicuss the modalities to be adopted to repeal the three farm laws.
The letter, sent by Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of 40 farmer unions, mentions guarantee for MSP, changes in the draft Electricity Amendment Bill 2020 to protect the interest of farmers as the prime agendas for the dialogue scheduled to take place at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.
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It is important that for a logical conclusion, our talks proceed on these agendas, the letter states.
Thousands of protesting farmers, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, have been camping at three Delhi border points - Singhu, Ghazipur and Tikri - for over a month now demanding a repeal of three farm laws and legal guarantee for minimum support price.
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Enacted in September, the three farm laws have been projected by the Centre as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove the middlemen and allow farmers to sell their produce anywhere in the country.
However, the protesting farmers have expressed apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of the MSP and do away with the "mandi" (wholesale market) system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.
