Govt, farmers hold talks, fix new meeting in sign of thaw

The Union government and farm groups protesting at the Punjab-Haryana border took the first step to resolving a year-long agitation on Friday with a meeting between Union minister Pralhad Joshi and the cultivators.

- Gurpreet Singh Nibber

The Union government and farm groups protesting at the Punjab-Haryana border took the first step to resolving a year-long agitation on Friday with a meeting between Union minister Pralhad Joshi and the cultivators.

In the meeting that occurred at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Public Administration in Chandigarh, Joshi pressed farm leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal who heads the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Sidhupur) and is on a fast for the past 81 days, to end his hunger strike, said Punjab chief secretary KAP Sinha. But the farm leader refused the request and said his agitation will continue until the farmers' demands of a legally binding minimum support price and a loan waiver are not met, said a Dallewal aide.

"We had a very positive meeting with farmer leaders... Farmers put forth their demands in the meeting... We heard all the demands of the farmer leaders...

We apprised them of the decisions taken by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government in the interest of farmers," Joshi said after the meeting.

The over two-and-a-half-hour meeting with the 28-member delegation from the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha was held after year-long protests by farmers.

"A meeting will be held on February 22 under the leadership of Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan," he added.

Chouhan, the agriculture minister, could not attend the meeting due to a family engagement.