KEJRIWAL TO MEET FARMER LEADERS OVER LUNCH
Office bearers of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha said none of the leaders associated with the group had received an official invitation yet
NEW DELHI: CM Arvind Kejriwal is scheduled to meet some farm leaders on Sunday to discuss the three contentious farm laws, which have evoked vociferous protests across the country, an official in the CM’S office said on Saturday.
“The meeting will take place over lunch at the Delhi Assembly. The three farm laws and other related concerns will be discussed in the meeting,” said the official, who did not wish to be identified. The CM’S office and Delhi government spokespersons refused to share names of the leaders to whom invites had been sent.
NEW DELHI: Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is scheduled to meet some farm leaders on Sunday to discuss the three contentious farm laws, which have evoked vociferous protests across the country, a senior official in the chief minister’s office said on Saturday.
“The CM’S meeting with the farmer leaders will take place over lunch at the Delhi Assembly on Sunday. The three farm laws and other related concerns will be discussed in the meeting,” said the official, who did not wish to be identified.
The chief minister’s office and Delhi government spokespersons refused to share names of the leaders to whom invites have been sent for Sunday’s meeting. HT spoke to many farm unions but none of them confirmed to have received an invite from the Delhi chief minister’s office.
Sunday’s meeting plan comes a week ahead of Kejriwal’s scheduled visit to Uttar
Pradesh’s Meerut, where he is supposed to address a kisan mahapanchayat (farmers’ meeting) on February 28.
Office bearers of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha – a collective of more than 30 farmer groups which are leading the ongoing protests – said that none of the leaders associated with the group had received an official invite for a meeting with Kejriwal.
Thousands of farmers from states such as Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have gathered at Delhi’s borders for nearly three months now, to voice concerns against the Farmers’ Produce Trade and
Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020, which were passed in the Parliament in September last year. The protesting farmers have blocked the interstate highways at Tikri, Singhu and Ghazipur demanding that the government repeal the three farm laws.
While the government says that the new laws are supposed to reform the agriculture sector in the country, the protesting farmers fear that the laws will do away with agricultural markets, favour industrialists, and affect prices of crops, which would further bring down their income.
Kejriwal, who is also the national convener of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), has stood in solidarity with protesting farmers since the onset of the protest. The AAP voted against the three contentious laws in both houses of the Parliament.
Before Kejriwal, other senior AAP leaders — such as deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, and health minister Satyendar Jain, among others — have met the farmers at the Delhi borders.