Union ministers to hold talks with farmers; tractor-trolleys start from villages to join march

Chandigarh: A team of three Union ministers will hold talks on Monday with a delegation of farmer leaders, who are planning to march towards Delhi. Meanwhile, convoys of tractor-trolleys have already set out from different parts of Punjab to join the march.

Haryana authorities have fortified the state's border with Punjab at many places in Ambala, Jind, Fatehabad and Kurukshetra using concrete blocks, iron nails and barbed wire to scuttle the farmers' proposed 'Delhi Chalo' march on February 13.

The Haryana government has also imposed restrictions under Section 144 of the CrPC in as many as 15 districts, prohibiting the assembly of five or more people in 15 districts and banning any kind of demonstration or march with tractor-trolley.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha have announced that more than 200 farm unions would head to Delhi on February 13 to press the Centre to accept several demands, including the enactment of a law to guarantee a minimum support price (MSP) for crops.

Union ministers Piyush Goyal, Arjun Munda and Nityanand Rai are scheduled to arrive in Chandigarh on Monday to hold a second round of talks with the farmer leaders to discuss their demands. The meeting will be held at the Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration in Sector 26 at 5 pm.

The first meeting with the three Union ministers was held on February 8.

Besides a legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP), the farmers are also demanding the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission's recommendations, pensions for farmers and farm labourers, farm debt waiver, withdrawal of police cases and 'justice' for victims of the Lakhimpur Kheri violence.