Protesting farmers agree to fresh talks with Centre

Farmers are ready to have a dialogue with the government over their demands, farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal said on Wednesday as groups tried to make their way into the national capital on day two of the protests. Dallewal, the president of Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta Sidhupur), said that Union Minister Anurag Thakur in a statement said that the Central government is ready to hold talks with the protesting farmers and is also ready to resolve their issues. “We do not want to give any room to the Centre for saying that it was inviting us, but they did not accept it. That we have accepted and we are ready for talks,” he told reporters at the Shambhu border. The farmer leader added that farmers have agreed to hold talks with the government. How many meetings have been there so far? So far, farmer groups have held two meetings with the central government. The first meeting was attended by Union Ministers Piyush Goyal, Arjun Munda and Nityanand Rai and the second one was held between Goyal and Munda in Chandigarh. Both the meetings, however, were inconclusive. What are farmers demanding? The key demands put forward by the farmers are: Farmers’ groups have demanded the enactment of a law guaranteeing minimum support price (MSP) for crops. They also want the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations and pension for farmers. Farmers are also calling for “justice” for the victims of Lakhimpur Kheli. Farm groups want the central government to repeal the Electricity Act of 2020.