Will take firm steps if January 4 talks fail: Farmers

New Delhi: Resolute in their demands for the repeal of three new farm laws and a legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP) for crops, protesting farmer unions on Friday said they will have to take firm steps if the Union government does not take a decision in their favour in the next meeting scheduled for January 4.

Addressing a press conference at the Singhu border protest site, farmer leaders warned of multiple actions if their main demands are not met in the meeting. They said that only five per cent of the issues raised by them have so far been discussed at the meetings with the government. "If the January 4 meeting with the government fails to end the deadlock, we will announce dates for shutting all malls, petrol pumps in Haryana," farmer leader Vikas told reporters. Farmers protesting at Shahjahanpur on the Haryana-Rajasthan border will also move towards the national capital, Swaraj India leader Yogendra Yadav said. 

Another leader Yudhveer Singh said that a tractor march will be held on January 6 if no concrete decision is taken in the next round of talks. After the sixth round of formal negotiations on Wednesday, the Union government and farm unions reached some common ground to resolve protesting farmers' concerns over rise in power tariff and penalties for stubble burning, but the two sides remained deadlocked over the main contentious issues of the repeal of three farm laws and a legal guarantee for MSP.

Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab and Haryana, are protesting at various borders of the national capital for more than a month against these three new laws.