Talks with farmers to continue, next meeting on May 4: Shivraj Chouhan

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The seventh round of talks between farmer leaders and a central delegation concluded on Wednesday, with Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announcing the next meeting on May 4. 

The talks were held to discuss the various demands raised by the farmers, including a legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP) for crops, among others. "A positive discussion took place in a cordial atmosphere. The talks will continue. The next meeting will take place on May 4," Chouhan said after the meeting. 

Besides Chouhan, Consumer Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi and Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal also attended the meeting held at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Public Administration in Sector 26 here. Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema and Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian too attended the meeting. 

Ahead of the talks, farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said a 28-member delegation of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) will take part in the meeting. The two farmer bodies are spearheading the farmers' stir. 

Stating that the farmers expected the government to resolve their issues, Pandher said, "We have come here with a positive mind. Some decisions should come out after the meeting. We expect that the deadlock over a law guaranteeing MSP will end and the talks will move forward." Earlier, veteran farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal reached the meeting venue in an ambulance. 

Dallewal, who has been on an indefinite fast since November 26 last year and is on medical aid, said they were expecting a response from the Centre on the data presented by the farmers to support their demands. The last meeting between the farmers and the central delegation was held here on February 22, which was attended by Chouhan, Joshi, and Goyal. 

In that meeting, the central team sought data from the farmers backing their demand for legal guarantee for MSP to discuss them with experts. The farmers have been claiming that a legal guarantee for MSP (for crops) can be given with an estimated outlay of Rs 25,000-30,000 crore per annum. 

A meeting between a central team led by Joshi and farmers' representatives was held here on February 14 as well.

Before that, four rounds of talks took place between central ministers and protesting farmers in February 2024, but they remained inconclusive. 

The protesting farmers have been camping at Shambhu and 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 their demands. 

Besides legal guarantee for MSP, the farmers are demanding debt waiver, pension for farmers and farm labourers, no hike in electricity tariffs, withdrawal of police cases against farmers, justice for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence in Uttar Pradesh, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, and compensation to the families of farmers who died during a previous agitation in 2020-21.