Farmers to hold meeting with Centre today to discuss key demands

Protesting farmers will hold a meeting with the central government in Chandigarh on February 15. At a press conference, Punjab Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee General Secretary Sarwan Singh Pandher said that the farmers are ready to discuss their key demands with the Centre, especially a legal guarantee on the minimum support price.

Union Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda and two other Union Ministers, Piyush Goyal and Nityanand Rai, will meet representatives of the protesting farmers in the city at 5 pm.

"We don't want conflict. Our priority right now is not to go to Delhi (for march), we want to solve this through dialogue. As said earlier, the meeting will be held at 5 pm," Sarwan Singh Pandher said.

It will be the third round of meeting between the farmer leaders and the Centre over their demands, including a legal guarantee to the minimum support price for crops.

Earlier, two meetings between the two sides have remained inconclusive.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha are spearheading the 'Delhi Chalo' agitation to put pressure on the Centre for their demands, including a law on MSP for crops and loan waivers.

Earlier in the day, Union agriculture minister Arjun Munda said that the government was ready to find a solution through dialogue.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha are spearheading the 'Delhi Chalo' agitation to put pressure on the Centre for their demands, including a law on minimum support price for crops and loan waivers.

Besides a legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP), the farmers are also demanding the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission's recommendations, pensions for farmers and farm labourers, farm debt waiver, withdrawal of police cases and "justice" for victims of the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, reinstate the Land Acquisition Act 2013, withdraw from the World Trade Organisation, and compensation for families of the farmers who died during the previous agitation, among others.