Farmers' Protest
10th round of talks between farmers' unions and Centre postponed
New Delhi/IBNS: The tenth round of talks between the Centre and the agitating farmers have been postponed by one day to January 20, media reports said.
Earlier in the day, Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar hoped that the agitating farmers would discuss the alternatives other than the repeal of the new farm laws in the tenth round of talks, said a Hindustan Times report.
He also appealed to them not to call off their tractor rally on Republic Day in Delhi.
Thousands of farmers are protesting at the Delhi-Haryana border since Nov 26, 2020 with their demands of the repeal of three farm laws, which have been dubbed as the agricultural revolution by the Narendra Modi government.
Though several rounds of talks between the representatives of both farmers and government occurred, the deadlock over the agricultural reforms seems to be far from resolution.
The ninth round of talks with the protesting farmers ended inconclusively on January 15 after which next round of talks were scheduled on January 19th.
The government asserted that both sides wanted to break the deadlock but it was getting delayed due to involvement of people of other ideologies, reported India Today.
"The government's ministerial meeting with farmers unions will be held on January 20 at 2 pm at Vigyan Bhawan, instead of January 19," the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement on Monday, the report said.
"The Government's ministerial meeting with protesting farmers' unions was fixed on January 19. Due to inevitable reasons, it has become important to postpone the meeting. Now the meeting will be held on January 20 at 2 pm at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. Request you to attend the meeting," Agriculture Secretary Sanjay Agarwal said in a letter to 40 farmer unions, the report added.
On January 12, the protesting farmers rejected the apex court's panel to form end the ongoing impasse.
The committee formed to resolve the problem is scheduled to hold its first meeting on Tuesday.
On Monday, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Arvind Bobde, leading a three-judge bench, said as quoted by NDTV, "Who should be allowed and the number of people to enter are all matters of law and order to be decided by the police. We are not the first authority."
In an application filed through the Delhi Police, the Centre told the court any rally or protest on Republic Day would cause an embarrassment to the country.
The farmers' leaders, who have called the rally on Jan 26, have said they would not disturb the Republic Day parade by holding their programme peacefully.
"We hope the Delhi and Haryana Police will cooperate in this. This parade will be peaceful," a leader said as quoted by NDTV.
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