Chandigarh, Feb 19: Farmer leaders taking part in the ‘Delhi Chalo’ agitation on Monday said they will discuss the government proposal on buying pulses, maize and cotton at MSP but the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, which spearheaded the 2020-21 stir, rejected the offer.
In the fourth round of talks with farmer leaders, a panel of three Union ministers on Sunday proposed buying of pulses, maize and cotton crops by government agencies at minimum support prices (MSP) for five years after entering into an agreement with farmers.
Earlier on Monday, farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said farmers will hold a discussion on the Centre’s proposal but they will not budge from their demand for a law guaranteeing MSP.
However, the SKM rejected the government proposal, saying it seeks to “divert and dilute” the farmers’ demand for MSP and they will accept nothing less than the ‘C-2 plus 50 per cent’ formula for MSP as recommended in the Swaminathan Commission report.
Besides a legal guarantee of MSP, farmers are also demanding the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations, pension for farmers and farm labourers, farm debt waiver, no hike in electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases and “justice” for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, and compensation to the families of farmers who died during a previous agitation in 2020-21.
Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, Agriculture and Farmer Welfare Minister Arjun Munda, and Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai held the fourth round of talks with the farmer leaders over their demands as thousands of protesting farmers were camping at the Punjab-Haryana border.
Talking to the media after the more than four-hour-long meeting, Goyal had said, “Cooperative societies like the NCCF (National Cooperative Consumers Federation) and NAFED (National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India) will enter into a contract with those farmers who grow tur dal, urad dal, masoor dal or maize for buying their crop at MSP for next five years.” (PTI)
