New Delhi: Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar told the farmers leaders in the meeting that the Minimum Support Price will not be touched, there will be no change in the MSP. After meeting with farmers, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that some issues were raised in previous and today’s meetings. Farmers’ organizations are particularly concerned about them. There is no ego in the government, talks are being done with farmers with an open mind. The farmers are worried that the new laws will end the APMC.
Tomar said that the government will consider to see that the APMC is strengthened further and its use increases. The new laws provide provisions for private mandis outside the scope of APMC. Therefore, under the AMPC Act, we will also consider having a uniform tax for mandis as well as private ones. Tomar said that it was raised in the meeting that if the business is outside the scope of the market, it will be on the basis of PAN card, which anyone can easily get today. Therefore, the merchant must be registered. Therefore, we will also ensure that the merchant is registered.
The Agriculture Minister said that the government is negotiating and the issue that will come up during the discussion will definitely reach a solution. That is why I appeal to the farmers to end their agitation so that the people of Delhi do not have to face the problems which they are facing due to opposition.
After the meeting, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Som Prakash said that the points of discussion have been prepared. These points will be discussed on 5 December and we hope that the protest will end on the same day.
Farmers want laws to be withdrawn
After the meeting, Indian Farmers Union spokesperson Rakesh Tikait said that the government has indicated on the MSP. It seems that his stance on MSP will be fine. The talks have made little progress. Tikait said that the issue is about withdrawal of laws completely. Not only one, but many issues will be discussed. The farmers want the laws to be withdrawn. The government wants to talk about MSP and amendments in the Acts.
Harjinder Singh Tanda of Azad Kisan Sangharsh Samiti said that very little progress has been made in the talks. At half time it seemed that today’s meeting would not yield any result, but after half the meeting it felt that there was pressure of movement on the government. The talks were held in a friendly atmosphere.
Tanda said that we are hopeful. Laws are wrong. We will put pressure on the government in the next meeting. They will have to say that they will withdraw the laws. In my opinion, it will be finalized on the day of the meeting after tomorrow.
The next round of talks will be held on 5 December
Farmers’ organizations met three Union ministers on Thursday for a fourth round of talks amid ongoing protests demanding the repeal of the new agricultural laws. Now the two sides will hold talks again on 5 December. Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Railway, Commerce and Food Minister Piyush Goyal and MP from Punjab and Minister of State for Commerce Som Prakash interacted with representatives of 35 farmer organizations at Vigyan Bhawan in the national capital.
The government said that the talks started in the afternoon and the talks were held in a cordial atmosphere. Farmer leaders have demanded the government to call a special session of Parliament to withdraw the agricultural laws in the meeting. Farmer’s representatives turned down the government’s proposal to set up a committee to look into the concerns of farmer organizations protesting against the new agricultural laws. After this, the talks between the two sides on December 1 were fruitless.
The government rejected the demand to repeal the law
The government had rejected the demand to repeal the law and asked the farmers’ organizations to identify specific issues related to the recently enacted laws and submit them for discussion on Thursday by December 2.
The government says that these laws, enacted in September, will lead to major reforms in the agriculture sector by ending the role of middlemen and allowing the farmer to sell crops anywhere in the country, but the demonstrating farmers fear that the new laws will give the minimum support price and procurement Will end the system and make the mandi system ineffective.
The protesting farmers had also demanded on Wednesday that the Central Parliament call a special session and cancel the new laws.
