Agri min Shivraj Chouhan may join central team meeting protesting farmers

A fresh round of talks between protesting farmers and the Centre will be held here on Saturday evening centred around the legal guarantee of minimum support price on crops, among other demands.

The meeting between the central team and farmer leaders will take place at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Public Administration in Chandigarh at 6 pm.

In the last meeting held on February 14, Union minister Pralhad Joshi had said that Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan would lead the central team for the February 22 meeting with the protesting farmers.

Farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher on Saturday said a delegation of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha will take part in the meeting with a positive mind.

Farmers expect from the government to resolve their issues at the earliest, he said.

Farmers had earlier asked for the next meeting be held in Delhi but the government scheduled it in Chandigarh.

Pandher said, "Today the sixth round of talks with the Centre will take place. We have information that the Union Agriculture Minister and other ministers will be part of the meeting. The KMM and SKM (Non-Political) delegation will take part in the meeting."  Farmers leaders said that the 28-member delegation of the farmers would put forth their side strongly in the meeting.

They said that the protests for various demands, including a legal guarantee on MSP, has been going on for the past one year.

In a February 19 letter to Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Sarwan Singh Pandher, Agriculture Ministry Joint Secretary Purna Chandra Kishan said, "This is in continuation of the previous meeting with the leaders of SKM (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) which was held on February 14 in Chandigarh."  "In this sequence, a meeting with the ministers of the Government of India and the Government of Punjab regarding the demands of farmers' unions has been organised on February 22 at Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Public Administration in Chandigarh. You are cordially invited to the meeting...," the letter in Hindi stated.

Both sides said the February 14 meeting went cordially. Dallewal, who is on an indefinite fast over the farmers' demands, also took part in last week's meeting.

The discussion came after a year-long protest by farmers, centred mainly around the demand for a legal guarantee of MSP on farm produce.

After the meeting, Joshi had said the next meeting will be held with Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan leading the central team. Joshi had said he would also be part of that meeting.

Prior to the February 14 meeting, four rounds of meetings took place between central ministers and the protesting farmers in February 2024 but the talks remained inconclusive.

Farmers, under the banner of the SKM (Non-Political) and the KMM, have been camping at the Shambhu and the Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13 last year after security forces did not allow them to march to Delhi to press for their various demands.