Farmers form panel for talks with Centre

New Delhi, Dec. 4: The Samyukta Kisan Morcha on Saturday formed a five-member panel for dialogue with the government on their pending demands including MSP, compensation to kin of farmers who died during the agitation against the agri laws and withdrawal of cases against the protesters.

The development comes after Union home minister Amit Shah, according to sources in the SKM, spoke to a senior farmer leader over the phone earlier this week.

“The five-member committee will now hold talks with the government on our pending demands. There have been informal talks with the government in the past but we want a written assurance on the remaining issues, including withdrawal of cases and a legal guarantee on MSP,” a farmer leader said. The sources said that in the coming days, the SKM’s state committees are likely to have meetings with the home ministers of states where cases have been registered against the protesting farmers.

“We will not end this agitation without a formal response on each of the issues being raised by us. We want to see all the cases foisted against farmers as well as their supporters, who were part of this movement, to be withdrawn and assurance to be made formally,” the SKM said.

Farmer leaders Balbir Singh Rajewal, Ashok Dhawle, Shiv Kumar Kakka, Gurnam Singh Chaduni and Yudhvir Singh were named the members of the committee after a meeting was held by the SKM here on Saturday. Addressing a press conference with

FARMER LEADERS Balbir Singh Rajewal, Ashok Dhawle, Shiv Kumar Kakka, Gurnam Singh Chaduni and Yudhvir Singh were named the members of the committee.

THE NEXT meeting of SKM has now been fixed for December 7, with the next two days kept for the Government of India to respond to SKM and work along with the 5member Committee.

other SKM members at the Singhu Border protest site, farmer leader Rakesh Tikait said that the next meeting of the Morcha will take place on December 7 at 11 am to decide the future course of the movement.

SKM, an umbrella body of 40 farm unions, in the statement said that farm unions have had a “bitter experience” in the past of securing oral assurances and ending their agitation only to find that the government reneges on them. “The Government of India has chosen to work informally and in a piecemeal fashion of responding to some of the issues being raised by the protesting farmers, the SKM statement said.

Protesting farm unions have been pressing for their demands to be considered including withdrawal of cases filed against farmers during the movement, legal guarantee on MSP and compensation to kin of farmers who died during the agitation. SKM leaders, after the meeting, said they will not move from the protest sites until cases filed against farmers are withdrawn, and demanded an assurance in writing.