The Centre on Thursday said it was prepared to accept suggestions to amend the farm sector laws but the agitating farmers stuck to their demand for a complete rollback of the reforms and threatened to intensify their agitation.
After seven hours of marathon talks, 40 farmer leaders agreed to meet the ministerial panel led by Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar again on Saturday to deliberate on their demands.
"We rejected the proposal of the government for amendments to the three farm laws. We stuck to our demand for the repeal of the three laws," Balbir Singh Rajewal, president of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Rajewal), told DH.
Kulwant Singh Sandhu of the Jamhuri Kisan Sabha said the approach of the government was different and appeared to accept certain flaws in the farm sector reforms.
The farmers’ organisations were scheduled to meet on Friday to decide their approach to further deliberations with the government.
The farmers’ siege of the national capital entered the eighth day on Thursday and received support from farmers’ organisations from several states.
Interacting with reporters, the agriculture minister reiterated that the government was committed to the continuation of the minimum support price regime and had no plans to scrap it.
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Tomar also expressed readiness to consider ways to further strengthen the Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) markets and consider the farmers’ demand for registration of traders outside the APMC system.
The new farm laws allowed any person with a PAN card to trade in agricultural commodities, a provision objected to by the farmers.
The government also expressed readiness to consider the farmers’ demands to allow settling of disputes in courts instead of the sub-divisional magistrate level.
"The government does not have any ego. We are willing to discuss all issues with farmers," Tomar said, renewing his appeal to farmers to end their agitation.
The Congress and AAP joined the farmers in demanding immediate convening of the Parliament to discuss the farmers’ protests and their demand for repeal of the farm laws.