Farm leaders meet today to discuss fresh talks offer

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 25

The Sanyukt Kisan Morcha, a joint forum of farmers’ organisations, will meet on Saturday to take a call on the response to the fresh letter received from the government and decide the future course of action.

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Leaders of farm bodies from Punjab huddled together on Friday to discuss the issues, including PM Narendra Modi’s speech during his video interaction with farmers of some states. “We will intimate leaders of the joint forum of organisations of our decisions. The final decision will be taken by the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha,” said a farm leader.

Harinder Singh Lakhowal, general secretary of BKU (Lakhowal), said the farm unions were surprised that while the PM and Agriculture Minister had admitted that there were flaws in the new laws and were ready to amend these, they were not ready to repeal these. “The PM said that rumours were being spread that MSP would go after the new laws. We say if this is merely a rumour, the government should immediately come up with an ordinance to make MSP a legal right,” he said. He said the statement that APMC mandis would not be affected with the new laws was not correct because when private mandis would come up, APMC mandis would not be able to survive amid competition.

“There will be no tax in private mandis while market fee and rural development fund are charged in APMC mandis. Private mandis will give extra benefits to farmers initially and once APMC mandis die their own death, farmers will be left to the mercy of private mandis,” he added.

Lakhowal said it was surprising that while thousands of farmers were sitting on the Delhi borders with their families in the extreme cold, the PM chose to speak to a few farmers through video-conferencing.

Reacting to the PM’s speech, Jagmohan Singh, another farm leader, said it was ironical that the PM thought that farmers who had organised such a big movement were illiterate and misguided. Yudhvir Singh, national general secretary, BKU (Tikait), “We understand that the letters being sent for offers of talks are merely to show to the SC so that the government can say it was sincere for talks, not farmers.”

‘Golgappa langar’ at Singhu border

• A group of seven firemen from Rania fire station in Sirsa distributed free “golgappa” langar at Singhu border on Friday and the stock was over within half an hour
• Fireman Davinder Singh said: “We were sitting free and the ‘golgappa’ seller was desperately looking for customers. A child was looking at the seller but he had no money. We immediately decided to purchase the stock and started the sewa (community service),” he said
• “Golgappa” seller Mohammad Salim said: “Everything is free here at the langars and these people (firemen) bought my entire stock for Rs1,000, which is more than what I expected.”