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by IANS |
New Delhi, Jan 15 (IANS) The ninth round of talks between farmer leaders and the Centre on the farmers' two main demands pertaining to three new central farm laws and MSP for crops is on in Delhi, officials said on Friday.
Apart from 41 representatives of farmer unions, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, and Minister of State Som Prakash are participating in the talks that began around 12.20 pm at the Vigyan Bhavan here.
Before the meeting commenced, Bhartiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait warned that if the Union government continued to hold on to its earlier stand of effecting amendments to the three new farm laws, the farmer leaders would walk out of the meeting after 15 minutes.
"If the government is afraid of fulfilling our demands on the repeal of the three farm laws, there is no use of holding a dialogue," he told IANS.
The farmer leaders are meeting the Ministers for the first time ever since the Supreme Court constituted a four-member committee of experts to redress the farmers' grievances over the three laws. Bhupinder Singh Mann, one of the panel members, recused himself from the committee on Thursday.
On Thursday, Tomar had asserted that the government was ready to hold the talks with an "open mind" and that they remained positive regarding the outcome of the parleys.
The farmers are demanding the withdrawal of The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Price Assurance and Agricultural Services Agreement Act, 2020; and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 as well as legal guarantee for the procurement of crops at MSP.
