Farmers' Protest: Govt Submits Written Assurance, SKM May Take Final Call Today

Farmers' agitation on the borders of the national capital is likely to end soon as the Centre on Tuesday gave a written assurance on their demands.

After a meeting in the evening, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), which is spear-heading the agitation, said that they will meet again on Wednesday as they have sought some clarifications from the government on its communication.

It is learnt that in the point-wise written assurance, the Centre has said that the Prime Minister and Agriculture Minister have already announced the formation of a committee consisting of representatives of the Centre, states, farmer organisations, and agriculture scientists on Minimum Support Price (MSP).

"The SKM members will be part of the farmer representatives in the committee," the government conveyed to the SKM.

It was also learnt that the government has also assured the SKM that police cases filed against the farmers will be withdrawn as soon as the protest ends.

"The Uttar Pradesh and Haryana governments have agreed to withdraw cases with the end of the protest. Departments related to the Government of India and the Union Territory have agreed to withdraw cases as farmers end their protest," the Centre assured the farmers.

On the question of compensation for farmers who died during the protest, sources said: "The Centre mentioned that the Punjab government has already announced Rs 5 lakh, to which Uttar Pradesh and Haryana have in principle agreed."

About the demand for withdrawal of the draft electricity bill, the Centre said that the opinion of all the stakeholders will be taken into before tabling it in Parliament.

On the issue of penal action for burning stubble, the government assured the SKM that farmers will be freed from criminal liabilities on the issue.

Farmers leader said that a proposal has been received on which a discussion was held on Tuesday.

"We discussed the proposal received from the Union government. Some farmers felt that some more clarification was needed on some issues. We hope that we will receive a reply from the Centre. Government has put some conditions and we want unconditional assurance," farmers leader Yudhvir Singh said.

BJP Kisan Morcha Chief Urge Farmer Organisations To Leave 'Dogma', End Agitation

National President of BJP Kisan Morcha and Lok Sabha MP from Fatehpur Sikri in Uttar Pradesh, Rajkumar Chahar has appealed to the farmer organisations to leave the "dogma" and return to their respective homes by ending the agitation.

Talking to IANS, Chahar said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi took back the farm laws with a "big heart" and these organisations had their own slogan that "Bill wapsi nahi, ghar wapsi nahi", and now when these bills are repealed, they should leave the "dogma" and end the agitation by returning back to their homes.

He said that the government is also forming a committee on Minimum Support Price (MSP) and is also considering their other demands.

Describing the continuation of the agitation as "politically motivated", the BJP MP said that it seems to be proving true that the opposition parties and these farmer organisations are "doing politics" on the issues of farmers.

Targeting the former Congress president, Chahar said that the whole country has understood the "intention" of Rahul Gandhi.

Rahul wants to "spread anarchy" in the country, wants to do politics in the name of farmers, he said adding that the Congress has been in power in the country for a long time but then they "neither talked about MSP nor thought of farmers".