New Delhi: The fourth round of talks between three Union Ministers and leaders from 40 farm organisations to resolve the on-going deadlock over the contentious agri-sector laws is underway at the national capital's Vigyan Bhawan. The protests by thousands of farmers on the Delhi-Ghaziabad border today reached the seventh day.
Agriculture minister Narendra Tomar, railways, food and consumer affairs minister Piyush Goyal and minister of state for commerce Som Prakash are leading the government side, while representatives of some of the biggest farmers unions in the country, mainly from Punjab, are speaking for the farmers.
In the last rounds of talks held on December 1, no breakthrough was reached and protesting farmers turned down the government's offer to set up a committee to redress their grievances.
Kisan Morcha on Wednesday stated their demands to the Centre and said that that the government should refrain from adopting any divisive policies, adding that they want farm laws to be repealed. However, the farmer organizations expressed satisfaction over the fact that the government has offered talks without any conditions.
READ: Anything less than repeal of farm laws would be betrayal: Rahul
The farm organisations also appealed to the government to talk with all the Kisan unions and various farm organisations rather than calling separate meetings.
With protests intensifying, the peasants have threatened to block all the entry points of Delhi. Kisan Morcha has also announced that if the issue remains unsolved, then effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, business tycoons Ambani and Adnani will be burnt on December 5.
The farmer unions also called for a nationwide protest on Saturday to oppose, what they claimed as, the corporatization of farming.
Meanwhile, Police today closed routes on two national highways connecting Ghaziabad to Delhi as farmers remained unyielding on their demand for scrapping the new farm laws and stayed put at the national capital's borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
