No breakthrough

New Delhi: In their first meeting with the Centre after the Supreme Court appointed a committee to resolve the deadlock over the three contentious farm laws, the protesting farmer unions stuck to their main demand for a complete repeal of the laws even as the Union government asked them to be more flexible in their approach and expressed its willingness for necessary amendments.

This was the ninth meeting between the government and farmer unions since December last year. Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Railways, Commerce and Food Minister Piyush Goyal, and Minister of State for Commerce Som Parkash, who is an MP from Punjab, held talks with the representatives of around 40 farmer unions for over five hours. The two sides will meet again on January 19 at 12 pm.

Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at various border points of Delhi for nearly two months now against the three farm laws.

They fear that these legislations will lead to the weakening of the minimum support price (MSP) system.

The three contentious laws are the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020.

The apex court had on January 12 stayed the implementation of the three central laws till further orders and announced the formation of a committee to hear the grievances of the farmers and the opinion of the government.

Despite their talks with the Centre not yielding significant results, the farmer unions said they were committed to continuing direct talks with the government to resolve the issue, even as a committee has been formed by the Supreme Court to resolve the deadlock.

"Our demands of repealing of the three farm laws and MSP guarantee remain. We will not go to the committee constituted by the Supreme Court. We will talk to the central government only," ANI quoted Rakesh Tikait, BKU spokesperson, as saying.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Tomar said detailed discussions took place at the talks but they could not reach a decisive stage. "Talks took place over three farm laws in a cordial atmosphere and detailed discussions took place on some issues, but couldn't reach a decisive stage," he said.

"We suggested they can form an informal group of people who can understand the laws better and prepare some concrete proposals, detailing what are farmers' expectations and what clauses are problematic for them, which the government can consider with an open mind," the minister said.

Despite the deadlock, the minister said he was hopeful of discussions reaching some decisive stage at the tenth round of talks on January 19. Tomar said he had no problem with the farmers preferring to continue talks with the government even as the Supreme Court has appointed a panel.

"Unions want to continue the dialogue with the government, and we have no problem with that. The SC-appointed panel will also work for the welfare of farmers," he said.

He also said the government will present its side before the committee panel when invited. A solution can emerge from the government-farmers talks as well as from the SC-appointed panel's deliberations, he added.