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Modi govt invites protesting farmers for new round of talks over farm Acts

Move comes 2 days ahead of the ‘Dilli Chalo’ march being organised by Punjab farmers. Farmers’ body says atmosphere not conducive for talks after Haryana makes several arrests.

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Chandigarh: The Narendra Modi government has invited Punjab’s protesting farmers for a second round of talks on 3 December, aimed at assuaging their apprehensions regarding the three central farm Acts.

The invitation, posted by Punjab’s former BJP chief Vijay Sampla on his Twitter account Tuesday, comes two days ahead of the ‘Dilli Chalo’ protest march that is being organised by Punjab farmers in collaboration with over 470 farmer and trade unions across the country.

— Vijay Sampla (@vijaysamplabjp) November 24, 2020

Hundreds of farmers are expected to march towards Delhi from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan on 26 and 27 November in a show of unity against the Centre’s move to bring in the three Acts.

Late Monday, Haryana took preventive action against the march and has since arrested over 30 farmer leaders.

“This number could increase. Agitating farmers are planning to jam Delhi from all sides and since Delhi has not allowed them to enter, they would be squatting on the Haryana-Delhi border affecting the supply of essential items to Delhi. It is an emergency for us and is being handled accordingly,” said Haryana Director General of Police Manoj Yadav told ThePrint.

Farmers in Punjab have been protesting for the last two months demanding the revocation of the three Acts first brought in as ordinances by the Modi government and later passed by the two Houses of the Parliament, followed by the President’s assent.


Also read: Bountiful monsoon rains set to boost India’s agriculture growth


‘Atmosphere not conducive for talks’

Dr Darshan Pal, convener of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, the body spearheading the protest in Punjab, said they have been informed about the invitation but “we are yet to take a call on accepting it”.

“Right now our focus is on the ‘Dilli Chalo’ march. It is highly condemnable that on one hand we are sent an invitation for talks and on the other, the BJP government in Haryana has arrested 31 kisan (farmer) leaders last night,” said Pal.

“We have never been opposed to talks but the atmosphere being created by the BJP, especially in Haryana, is certainly not conducive to talks,” he added.

Pal, who is also part of the seven-member national committee that is organising the march, said if and when the talks take place, these will not be limited to Punjab farmers but would include members of the joint forum of farmer bodies across the country that have come together for the protest.

“Let us first see how the Modi government deals with the ‘Dilli Chalo’ protest and then we will decide about the talks,” he added.

First round of talks had failed

In the first round of talks, three central ministers had met Punjab’s protesting farmers on 13 November to end the conflict that had arisen following ‘rail roko’ protest by the farmers.

After blocking the entry of all trains into the state in October, the farmer bodies had offered to allow goods trains to pass. But the Indian Railways refused to run any train to the state till the farmers allowed both goods and passenger trains to pass through. The meeting was inconclusive.

Following an appeal made by Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh last week, the farmer bodies relented and allowed both passenger and goods trains to pass through for 15 days while reiterating their decision to continue with their protest.


Also read: Infighting, Hooda ‘politics’, structural gaps — why Congress’s Haryana unit appears messy


Train service resumes with hitches

On Monday, Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal announced that both passenger and goods train services to Punjab had resumed.

However, there were reports Tuesday of at least one protesting farmer body, Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Morcha, blocking a section of the train track in Jandiala Railway station in Amritsar due to which a passenger train had to be diverted and a goods train stopped in the wee hours.

A railway official told The Tribune that authorities won’t be able to run the trains until the tracks are clear.

Coal, urea, gunny bags arrive

With train services suspended for almost two months, Punjab had been facing an acute shortage of coal for power plants, urea for the sowing of the wheat crop and gunny bags for the packaging of the procured and shelled rice. However, the situation started to inch towards normalcy Tuesday.

“One unit each of the two private power plants at Talwandi Sabo and Nabha started functioning this morning. The first rake containing 4.5 metric tonnes of coal arrived yesterday at the Talwandi Sabo and the second one reached Nabha later in the evening,” said A. Venu Prasad, managing director, Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd.

Anirudh Tewari, additional chief secretary, agriculture, Punjab said seven rakes containing almost 17,000 tonnes of urea had arrived in the state and another 11 rakes containing 25,500 tonnes of urea were expected to reach Tuesday. “We are maintaining constant connect with the Union Ministry of Fertilisers and Railways,” he told ThePrint.

The supply of gunny bags for the packaging of procured paddy and shelled rice is expected to begin Wednesday morning.

“The first rake of 80 containers of gunny bales has already reached Dhappar in Derabassi and another three are on the way. By the evening, almost 16,000 bales of gunny bags will reach the state which will then be distributed to various centres from tomorrow morning,” said Anjuman Bhaskar, deputy director, Department of Food and Civil Supplies, Punjab.

The Food Corporation of India had also lined up 31 rakes for the outside movement of rice, and four for the wheat stored in the state, she added.


Also read: 75% of Modi govt’s new fertiliser subsidy grant of Rs 65,000 cr will only clear past dues


 

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