Farmer protests continue as talks remain inconclusive
NEW DELHI: The more than three-hour-long dialogue between a group of more than 32 farmer union leaders and the government remained inconclusive on Tuesday.
The fourth round of talks will be held on Thursday. The farmers declared that they will continue their protest and the agitation will be strengthened day by day until they do not get a solution to their demands from the government.
Farmer leaders, however, said the meeting was peaceful but the government was not ready to repeal its three farm laws, and proposed to form a commitee to study and clarify law-related misconceptions to resolve the ongoing deadlock.
Some of the farmers raised the issue that Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh were not present in the meeting despite the government’s promise that they will be part of the discussions.
At the end of meeting, which began at Vigyan Bhawan in Central Delhi, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said “The third round of meeting has ended and the fourth round of meeting will be held on Thursday ( Dec.3).”
Dec.3 is also the date that was earlier decided by the government to hold talks with farmers.
Bharatiya Kisan Union General Secretary (Punjab), Balwant Singh said: “The meeting was inconclusive.”
Punjab Kisan Sangathan Treasurer Karnal Singh said that “The protest will continue until the farmers’ demands are not met.”
“However, the talks with the government would continue,” Karnal said.
The government’s proposal to form a committee to study the three contentious farms laws was rejected by the farmer unions during the ongoing talks called by the Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Tuesday to resolve the issues of agitating farmers.
Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Roop Singh Sanna said that the government proposed to form a commitee to study and discuss issues related to the three farm laws enacted in September during the Monsoon Session of Parliament.
The leader said the government had offered to select four-five members from farmers’ association to form the commitee in which there will be some government members.
He said that all the “union leaders unanimously rejected” government’s offer.
“Forming a commitee is an atempt to postpone the issue. We are not ready to accept the government’s offer,” said Sanna.