Farmers, Centre reached consensus on most demands: MoS Agriculture

In the wake of the ongoing Kisan Kranti Padyatra here, the Centre has agreed to majority of the demands raised by the agitating farmers.

Speaking to the media, Union Minister of State for Agriculture, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said a consensus was arrived atafter a meeting between the protesting farmers and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. "Home Minister Rajnath Singh met the farmers' leaders and discussed their demands. They have reached an agreement on majority of the issues. Farmers' leaders, Uttar Pradesh ministers Laxmi Narayan ji, Suresh Rana ji and I will go to meet farmers now," said Shekhawat.

However, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) spokesperson Yudhvir Singh, in an interview to ANI, said that the Centre has not cleared its stand on the main issue of the farmers - C2+50, a comprehensive formula for calculating minimum support price (MSP) for agricultural produce, over and above the cost of production.

"We had a discussion on 11 points. The government agreed on seven points, but didn't agree on four yet. They said they will have to think about those demands in another meeting, as they pertain to financial matters. Famers are dissatisfied because the government did not clear its stand on the main issue of C2+50. It did not clear its stand even on the other main issue of loan waiver. They said they will discuss it in detail," said Singh.

Earlier in the day, the Home Minister had held discussions with Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on how to resolve the farmers' issues.

This comes after agitating farmers, who were marching towards Delhi as part of the BKU protest, were stopped at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border earlier in the day with the police using water cannons and tear gas shells to disperse them.

Thousands of farmers began their agitation on September 23 at Haridwar in Uttarakhand and marched towards New Delhi, many of them on foot and scores sitting atop tractors, buses and raising slogans.

Their demands include complete loan waiver, reduction in electricity tariff and pension to every farmer aged above 60.