The protesting farmers’ groups on Wednesday decided to halt their march into Delhi demanding legal guarantee for procurement of minimum support price (MSP) crops and farm loans waiver for two days. Earlier in the day, one farmer was killed and several others injured on the Punjab-Haryana border, amid firing of tear gas shells by the police.
“We will discuss the current situations over the next two days and decide the future course of actions on Friday,” Sarwan Singh Pandher, general secretary, Punjab Kisan Mazdoor, said, following a meeting of the farmer-groups spearheading the agitation.
Pandher also stated that the government must share the agenda for further meetings even as agriculture minister Arjun Munda on Wednesday called for a fifth round of talks with the agitating farmers to discuss “all the outstanding issues including the MSP, stubble burning and also pending cases against the protestors.”
Shubh Karan Singh, 23, a farmer from Bhatinda district in Punjab, was killed and few others were injured as protesters resumed their ‘Delhi Chalo’ agitation. Leaders of farmer groups alleged the death and injuries were caused by the firing of tear gas shells by the Haryana police to stop farmers breaching the barricades at Shambhu and Khanaur borders. Official sources said the cause of death will be ascertained after the post-mortem.
Following the fourth rounding of meeting between the farmers and a government delegation including agriculture minister Munda and food minister Piyush Goyal late on February 18, the government had promised that state-owned agencies Nafed and NCCF will procure five crops — cotton, maize, tur, urad and masoor — from these farmers at minimum support price (MSP) without any limit on volume, for the next five years.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), under which farmer unions fought against farm laws in 2020-2021, too, rejected the government’s proposal on crop diversification and procurement for five years.
The current agitation to March to Delhi was called by the SKM (non-political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee of Punjab, who were earlier part of SKM in the November 2020-November 2021 agitation against three farm laws.
To demand legal guarantee for MSP for crops and hosts of other demands, thousands of farmers are camping at the Punjab and Haryana border points since February 13 to march into Delhi.