Government will take forward farmers' cause: Shekhawat

Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said the farmers' protest Tuesday on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border was one of the few successful agitations and the government would take forward their cause.

The minister of state for agriculture's remark came after a meeting with the protesting farmers, who said they were not "satisfied" with the assurance and stayed put on the border here and in other places.

Shekhawat was rushed to meet the farmers after an emergency meeting was held under the chairmanship of Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

The minister said he has been associated with farmers' issues and he could say with "certainty" on Lal Bahadur Shastri's birth anniversary that there have been only a few successful agitations like this in the past.

Shekhawat said a committee of chief ministers will also look into the farmers' demand.

"Representatives of farmers along with ministers of the UP government Laxmi Narayan and Suresh Rana held discussions on a range of issues at Rajnath Singh's residence. After that a consent was reached on some issues. The government has agreed to some of your (farmers) demands," he said.

The government said a review petition will be filed against the National Green Tribunal's order to ban diesel vehicles that are over 10 years old and several other measures will be taken to pacify agitating farmers and address their concerns.

The Centre also assured farmers that it would fix the minimum support prices (MSP) of rabi (winter-sown) crops like wheat at least 1.5 times of the production cost. It would also try to restrict imports of agri items that are produced abundant in the country.

"The most serious problem of the farmers, on NGT that any vehicle which is more than 10 years old will not ply on farms and roads.

"Rajnath Singh ji and the government have agreed to your (farmers) demand, but since it is the decision of the judiciary we will have to deal with it following due procedures," the minister said.

"On behalf of the government, I assure you (farmers) that the government will take forward your fight and agitation, and the governments of the national capital region be it in UP or Haryana or Rajasthan ... Governments of all these states will fight for the issues of farmers," he said.

The government will ensure that the tractors of farmers are not stopped and "will file an appeal in the Supreme Court to get this matter resolved and fight till the end", he said.

On the problem of farm labour, the minister said the government would look at bringing in some changes to the minimum wage rules for rural areas to solve this problem.

"The government has formed a committee of six chief ministers to look into this issue of labour for farm. The committee is in talks to connect MNREGA with agriculture," Shekhawat said.

"On behalf of Rajnath Singh, I assure you that I will represent the farmers' interests in this committee and whatever changes would be required to link MNREGA with agriculture will be made," he told the farmers.

Shekhawat also said GST has been brought in by the Modi government which has considered the plight of the farmers and brought down taxes on all things related to agriculture.

"I am a farmer first and minister later. Today, GST is not handled by Centre alone and states also have a say in it, but I want to assure you that we will put up your demands with the GST council," he added.

On the MSP, the minister said "Being a farmer myself, I want to thank Modi ji for raising the MSP to 1.5 times which no one else could dare to do in last 40 years."