Protesting farmers reject govt's 5-year procurement plan

The protesting farmers on Monday rejected the central government's new plan for the Minimum Support Price for only five crops, saying that it doesn't favour them.

Speaking to the reporters, Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal insisted that the government should announce MSP for all the 23 crops and said that they would resume the 'Delhi Chalo' march on February 21.

"After the discussion of both forums, it has been decided that if you analyse, there is nothing in the government's proposal...This is not in the favour of farmers. We reject it," he said, according to ANI news agency.

Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, Agriculture and Farmer Welfare Minister Arjun Munda and Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai had held the fourth round of talks with the farmer leaders in Chandigarh.

Besides a legal guarantee for MSP, farmers are also demanding the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission's recommendations, pension for farmers and farm labourers, farm debt waiver, no hike in electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases and "justice" for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, and compensation to the families of farmers who died during a previous agitation in 2020-21.

Talking to the media after the meeting, Union Minister Goyal had said, "Cooperative societies like the NCCF (National Cooperative Consumers Federation) and NAFED (National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India) will enter into a contract with those farmers who grow 'tur dal', 'urad dal', 'masoor dal' or maize for buying their crop at MSP for next five years." "There will be no limit on the quantity (purchased) and a portal will be developed for this," he had added.

Goyal has also proposed that the Cotton Corporation of India will buy cotton from farmers at MSP for five years after entering into a legal agreement with them.

Farmer leaders after the meeting had said they will discuss the government's proposal in their forums on Monday and Tuesday, and thereafter, decide the next course of action.