"Ball in your court now": Centre says after farmers refuse proposal to hold agri laws
New Delhi/IBNS: The eleventh round of meeting between the Centre and the representatives of farmers' unions ended in a stalemate like the previous ones with the farmers refusing to accept the government's latest proposal to put the controversial laws on hold for a one and half years.
A day after Centre proposed to put the farm laws on hold for a period of one to one-and-a-half years, protesting farmer unions on Thursday rejected the proposal and reiterated their demand for a full repeal of three farm laws.
However, this time no more dates for future meetings have been set by the Centre.
In fact, the central government has now put the ball in the farmers' court.
Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar told farmers "the ball is your court now" adding to media that he was "sad" because farmer leaders did not seem to have "farmers' welfare at the heart of (their) talks".
"Talks remained inconclusive as farmers' welfare was not at the heart of talks from the unions' side. I am sad about it... We asked them to reconsider our proposal as it is in the interest of farmers and the country," Tomar was quoted by news agency ANI.
On Thursday, a statement from Samyukt Kisan Morcha said that the farmers not only rejected the proposal to put the farm laws on hold but demanded "a full repeal of three central farm acts and enacting a legislation for remunerative MSP for all farmers."
''The Samyukt Kisan Morcha pays homage to 143 farmers, who have been martyred in this movement so far. These companions were separated from us, while fighting this mass movement. Their sacrifice will not go in vain and we will not go back without the repealing of these farm laws,'' the statement had added.
Thousands of farmers, especially from Punjab and Haryana, are staging a sit-in protest along the Delhi borders.
The protest started on November 26. The farmers are demanding a complete rollback of the new farm reform laws and a guarantee on the Minimum Support Price.
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