Talks with farmers held in cordial atmosphere; next meeting in Chandigarh on March 19: Shivraj Chouhan
Chandigarh: Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Saturday said the meeting with farmer leaders was held in a cordial atmosphere and the next round of talks will take place in Chandigarh March 19. A fresh round of talks between the protesting farmers and a central team led by Chouhan to discuss the formers' various demands, including a legal guarantee for MSP on crops, was held here on Saturday evening.
Union ministers Pralhad Joshi and Piyush Goyal also attended the meeting on Centre's behalf. Speaking to the media after the meeting, Chouhan said the discussions with the farmers took place in a cordial atmosphere. The central team placed the farmers' welfare programme, which is the priority of the Narendra Modi government, before the farmers during the meeting, Chouhan said. "We heard the views of farmer leaders Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Sarwan Singh Pandher. A very good discussion took place. The discussions would continue and the next meeting will be held in Chandigarh on March 19," the minister said after the meeting that lasted for nearly three hours. However, Chouhan did not take any questions from the media. Chouhan along with Joshi earlier reached the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Public Administration -- the meeting venue -- at 6:05 pm to meet the 28-member farmers' delegation.
Punjab Cabinet ministers Harpal Singh Cheema, Gurmeet Singh Khuddian and Lal Chand Kataruchak were also present at the meeting. The farmers' delegation comprising Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Sarwan Singh Pandher reached the meeting venue earlier. Dallewal (70) has been on a fast-unto-death at the Khanauri border point between Punjab and Haryana since November 26, 2024, to press the Centre to accept the agitating farmers' demands. The farmers under the banner of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) have been camping at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13 last year after security forces did not allow them to march to Delhi to press for their various demands.
Besides a legal guarantee for MSP, the farmers are demanding debt waiver, pension for farmers and farm labourers, no hike in electricity tariffs, withdrawal of police cases against farmers, and justice for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence in Uttar Pradesh. Reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, and compensation to the families of farmers who died during a previous agitation in 2020-21 are also part of their demands.
