Farm shutdown call affects four states; talks on Sunday

Several parts of Punjab and some parts of Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh were hit by a largely rural shutdown called by farmer groups on Friday, hours after the third round of talks between them and the government remained inconclusive, leaving a stalemate that involves a caravan of thousands of farmers camping on the Haryana-Punjab border.

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In the early hours of Friday, police fired tear gas shells at a group of farmers as they attempted to approach the barricades at the Shambhu Border near Ambala, where Haryana police has laid down rows of metal and concrete barriers and spike strips.

Union agriculture minister Arjun Munda, who was part of a three-minister delegation that held talks with farm union representatives well into midnight earlier, said he was hopeful that the fourth round of talks scheduled for Sunday will "yield positive results".

"Solutions can be found only through dialogue. The idea is to resolve their concerns by holding talks on key issues," he told reporters in New Delhi.

A collective of several farmer unions began an agitation on February 9 to press the government for several legal guarantees, including minimum support price (MSP) for crops and for criminal cases linked to a 2021 protest to be dropped.