Farmers end their protests on Saturday after the Center made a written proposal on MSP and legal cases
A lengthy meeting of farmer leaders from SKM was held on Tuesday evening.
New Delhi:
Farmers who have protested for more than 15 months against the (now scrapped) agricultural law and other issues including the Minimum Support Price (MSP) legal guarantee have announced that they will end protest on Saturday, December 11 and return to their homes. Yesterday, the Center submitted a draft written proposal to the five-member committee of Samyukta Kisan Morcha following a November 21 letter from SKM to Prime Minister Modi listing six requirements. The farmers pointed to the repeal of the controversial laws as just one of the concerns they raised and refused to leave after Prime Minister Modi announced the repealing of the laws and asked them to return. .
Last week, the farmers said Interior Minister Amit Shah spoke to them (by phone call) to discuss the outstanding issues; this was after their protests forced the repeal of the agricultural laws.
The protesting farmers have questioned the intentions of the government and have insisted that they will leave after all cases registered against them during the protests, and also those related to the straw burning, was cancelled. Referring to the 2016 Jat incitement to reserve, they said that the government did not withdraw the legal cases even with assurances.
A lengthy meeting of farmer leaders from Samyukt Kisan Morcha was held on Tuesday evening at Singh, on the Delhi-Haryana border. The meeting – to consider the center’s offer – ended without agreement on how to proceed.
Sources yesterday said the center, as part of the proposal, would form a committee to decide on the MSP issue. The committee will include government officials, agricultural experts and representatives from Samyukt Kisan Morcha, the umbrella body of farmers’ unions that led the rally.
Sources also said the center has agreed to drop all police cases against farmers – this includes complaints about burning straw and those filed by Haryana and Uttar Pradesh regarding the cases. violent clashes with security forces over the past few months.
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