Farmers will talk with Govt, not with SC panel

The representatives of the agitating farmers on Tuesday announced that they will meet the government in their tenth round of talks on Wednesday at 2 PM, while making it clear that nobody will meet the Supreme Court-appointed panel.

The panel of experts, one of whom has since dropped out, will start hearing the farmers opposed to the three contentious laws and their supporters from Thursday.

A Supreme Court Bench, headed by Chief Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde, is also to hold a sitting on Wednesday at 11 AM and has the farmers' issue on top of its cause list.

After its first meeting on Tuesday to draw up its agenda, the Supreme Court-appointed panel decided to hold its first round of consultations with the farmers on Thursday, according to its member Dr Pramod Kumar Joshi.