Ready for talks with govt, but will first discuss repealing agri laws: Farmer leaders

NEW DELHI: Threatening to further intensify their protest, farmer leaders on Saturday said they are ready to hold talks with the government but will first discuss repealing of the three

new farm laws

.


Addressing a press conference at

Singhu Border

, farmer leader

Kanwalpreet Singh

Pannu said that thousands of farmers will start their 'Delhi Chalo' march from Rajasthan's Shahjahanpur through the Jaipur-Delhi Highway at 11am on Sunday.

Live updates: Farmers protest
He said that farmers from other parts of the country are also on their way to join the protesters here and they will take the agitation to the next level in the coming days.

“If the government wants to hold talks, we are ready, but our main demand will remain the scrapping of the three laws. We will move onto our other demands only after that,” the farmer leader said.

Farmer union

leaders will also sit on a hunger strike between 8am and 5pm on December 14 against the new laws, he said.

Pannu alleged the government tried to weaken the agitation, but that the protesting farmers did not let it happen. He vowed to keep the protest peaceful.


The government on Friday asked the protesting farmers to be vigilant against their platform being misused, saying some “antisocial” as well as “Leftist and Maoist” elements were conspiring to spoil the atmosphere of the agitation which has been going on for over two weeks now.

Photographs of some protesters at the Tikri border seen holding posters demanding release of activists arrested under various charges had gone viral, prompting

agriculture

minister Narendra Singh Tomar to say that these “antisocial elements” are conspiring to spoil the atmosphere of the peasants' movement under the guise of farmers.

'Hopeful next round of talks will lead to conclusive result'
Meanwhile, Haryana deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala on Saturday said he is hopeful the next round of talks between the Centre and the unions will take place in the next 24-40 hours.

After meeting Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar in the national capital, Chautala said the crop procurement at the government-decided MSP (

minimum support price

) would be ensured for each farmer till the time he was part of the state government.

Chautala, who also met defence minister Rajnath Singh and food, railways and commerce minister Piyush Goyal earlier in the day, also said the Haryana government is stable as of now and his party has a strong position on the MSP issue.

Chautala, who has been facing pressure from the opposition and some Haryana farmers to withdraw from the BJP-led government in the state, had earlier said he will resign if the MSP system is threatened. Asked whether the alliance government in Haryana was stable, Chautala said on Saturday, "Yes ... till we ensure MSP, we will be stable."

"I am hopeful that in the next 24-40 hours, there will be another round of talks and some conclusive statement can come out of that," the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) leader added.

Enacted in September, the three farm laws have been projected by the government as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove the middlemen and allow farmers to sell their produce anywhere in the country.

However, the protesting farmers have expressed apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of Minimum Support Price and do away with the mandi system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.

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