On Wednesday, a new round of talks with Punjab farmer leaders started in Chandigarh, where, besides agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, foods and public distribution minister Prahlad Joshi, industry and commerce minister Piyush Goyal also joined them. The meeting was held at the Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration in Sector 26, where 28 farmer unions, including Samyukt Kisan Union (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, presented their demands.
This is after the last round of talks held on Feb 22 that failed to produce a conclusion. Earlier, Sarwan Singh Pandher of the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha farmers’ leaders indicated that the central government is likely to meet their long pending demands in the forthcoming talks over the farm laws issue. The issue on the table is the legal guarantee of the minimum support price (MSP) for crops. During earlier discussions, the farmer and the central team asked for supporting data for this demand. They also argue that such an MSP guarantee would entail an annual outlay of a sum of ₹25,000-30,000 crore, which they believe can be met.
Since February 13, 2023, farmers have been protesting at Shambhu and Khanauri border points on the Punjab-Haryana, where they could not march towards Delhi. Farmer leader Jagjeet Singh Dallewal has been on an indefinite hunger strike, hoping the government can fulfil their demands since November of 2023.
Apart from the legal MSP guarantee, farmers are also demanding a complete farm loan waiver for the debtors, pension for the farmers & farm labourers, non-hike in the electricity tariffs, withdrawal of police cases against farmers, justice for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri incident, de-registration of the Land Acquisition Act of 2013, and compensation for the families that lost their lives during 2020–21 protests.
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