Centre, farmers to hold 11th round of talks on farm laws today

The Modi government on Friday will hold another round of talks with farmers on farm laws today.

The government on Wednesday had proposed to suspend the three contentious farm laws for one and half years and set up a joint committee to discuss the Acts to end the stalemate, but farmer leaders did not immediately accept the proposal and said they will revert after their internal consultations.

Agitating farmers on Thursday rejected the Modi government’s offer to suspend the three farm laws for 18 months and insisted on complete rollback of the agricultural reforms, dashing hopes for an end to the 58-day protests.

The outright rejection of the government offer came after marathon meetings of the farmers’ unions on the eve of the 11th round of talks with the ministerial panel on Friday.

“In a full general body meeting of the Sanyukta Kisan Morcha on Thursday, the proposal put forth by the government on Wednesday was rejected,” Darshan Pal, leader of the Sanyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) said.

Also read — Farmers reject Centre's proposal to suspend farm laws; insist on repeal

Pal said that full repeal of the three central farm laws and enacting a legislation for remunerative MSP for all farmers remained the pending demands of the movement.

On Wednesday, farmer leaders said there was no breakthrough in the first two sessions as both sides were stuck on their stated positions vis-a-vis the three farm laws and there was little hope of any outcome other than fixing the date for the 11th round.

The laws have already been stayed till further orders by the Supreme Court, which has formed a committee to resolve the deadlock. The committee, which had its first meeting on Tuesday. It has been asked to give its report in two months.

Also read — Centre under misconception that only Punjab, Haryana farmers in battle against farm laws, says Jharkhand CM

The tenth round of talks was initially scheduled on January 19, but later got postponed to Wednesday.

In the last round of talks, the government had asked protesting farmers to prepare a concrete proposal about their objections and suggestions on the three farm laws for further discussion at their next meeting to end the long-running protest. But, unions stuck to their main demand of a complete repeal of the three Acts.

Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, are protesting at various border points of Delhi for over a month now against the three laws. Farmer groups have alleged these laws will end the mandi and MSP procurement systems and leave the farmers at the mercy of big corporates, even as the government has rejected these apprehensions as misplaced.

On January 11, the Supreme Court had stayed the implementation of the three laws till further orders and appointed a four-member panel to resolve the impasse.

Bhartiya Kisan Union president Bhupinder Singh Mann had recused himself from the committee appointed by the apex court.

Shetkari Sanghatana (Maharashtra) president Anil Ghanwat and agriculture economists Pramod Kumar Joshi and Ashok Gulati are the other three members on the panel.

Under attack from protesting unions for their "pro-government" public stand on three contentious farm laws, the members of the committee said that they would keep aside their own ideology and views while consulting various stakeholders, even as they indicated a complete repeal won't augur well for much-needed agriculture reforms.

Earlier in the day, a group of farm union leaders met top officials of Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh police to discuss the route and arrangements for their tractor rally on January 26 to protest against the three farm laws.

But the unions rejected a suggestion by police officers to hold their rally on the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Expressway instead of Delhi's Outer Ring Road, sources said.

(With inputs from PTI)