Mumbai: Maharashtra cabinet minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik on Wednesday demanded that the Centre start a dialogue at the earliest with protesting farmers to resolve their pending issues, including bringing a law on Minimum Support Price (MSP) for agriculture products.
Addressing a press conference along with Congress' state president Nana Patole, Malik also demanded compensation to farmers who died during the year-long protest outside Delhi against the three controversial agri-marketing laws which are now being repealed by the Centre.
The NCP and the Congress are part of the Shiv Sena-led MVA government.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week announced that the three farm laws, which were at the centre of protest by farmers for the past year, will be repealed. Modi had insisted the laws were pro-farmers, but added the Centre could not convince a section of cultivators about their benefits.
Unless a law to bring MSP is not passed, demands of the farmers will remain unfulfilled. At least 700 people have lost their lives due to wrong policies, Malik said.
Dialogue is key to resolving any obstacle in democracy, the minister stressed.
Dialogue (with farmers) was first initiated (by the government) in the beginning (of the protest last year). Then the protest was being bulldozed. Now, there is a unilateral announcement that some farmers could not be convinced (so the laws are being repealed).