A panel of ministries from the center held a meeting today with the farmer unions for discussions and dealing with their concerns. The panel included Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways & Commerce, and Som Prakash, Minister of State, Ministry of Commerce and Industries communicated with the spokesperson from Farmers Organizations of Punjab.
After the meeting, the Centre said, “In the interaction, it has been recommended by the Government to the representatives of Farmers Union to categorize the particular issues linked to Farm Reform Acts and share those with the Government on 02.12.2020 for review. These issues will be addressed in the fourth round of meeting to be held on 03.12.2020”. They also added, “It was guaranteed that the Government of India is always devoted to safeguarding the interest of their farmers and is always ready to have discussions for farmers’ welfare”.
Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar also stated, “The meeting was good, and we have decided to hold the next round of talks on December 3. We wanted a small group to be represented, but the farmer leaders want the discussions to be held with everyone. We do not have a problem with it.”
Ministry also said, “During the discussions, the Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister suggested to form an expert committee to put forward the concerns of farmers so as to sort them with mutual assent. But the spokesperson of the Farmers Union recommended that all the members will be there for further rounds of discussions with the Government to discuss the matter harmoniously.
Jagmohan Singh, general secretary of Bharatiya Kisan Union (Punjab) said, “The meeting was alright… We told them there are many victuals in these new Farm Bills which are anti farmers… they anticipated that a board is set up… the stance of governments has always been to form committees and commissions, and the discussions are incessant… we explicitly abandoned the offer.”
