Cane farmers of Punjab put off stir for 10 days

Jalandhar, May 26

The 16 farmer organisations, which have been a part of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, on Thursday held a meeting with Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema here.

The meeting went on for three hours, but remainedbut inconclusive. Following which, the minister reportedly told them to give the government some more time on getting the complete clarity on the issue and to work out a solution to resolve their demand for the payment of pending cane dues of Rs 900 crore. Another meeting has now been fixed between the farmers and the minister in Chandigarh on June 3 till which the farmers have announced to postpone their agitation.

Manjit Singh Rai of BKU (Doaba), who led the farmers, said: “We have also been given an assurance of a meeting with CM Bhagwant Mann. We have also been told that Rs 72 crore which are due from private mills at Phagwara would be cleared after the auction of their attached properties in Punjab and Haryana.”

Farmers had planned to block the NH-1 at Phagwara today but it was postponed last evening after the govt invited them for talks today.