After the fourth round of talks between protesting farmers and Union Ministers concluded on Sunday night, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) – an umbrella organisation of farmer unions, which is not directly linked to those leading the ‘Delhi Chalo’ march, has rejected the government’s 5-year MSP contract offer.
After leaving the meeting with farmer leaders late Sunday night, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said that a panel of three Union Ministers — Goyal along with Agriculture and Farmer Welfare Minister Arjun Munda and Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai — proposed a five-year plan of buying pulses, maize and cotton crop at minimum support prices from the farmers.
The SKM, however, on Monday evening criticised the proposal as “diverting the focal demands of farmers”, and insisted on nothing less than the purchase of “all crops (23, including the above five) with guaranteed procurement (as) promised in the BJP manifesto (before the) 2014 general election”, an NDTV report said.
The SKM further stressed that this procurement should be based on the C2+50% MSP, formula of the Swaminathan Commission and not the existing A2+FL+50% method.
The SKM also criticised the Centre for a lack of transparency through the four rounds of talks so far.
Meanwhile, the farmer leaders, who held a meeting with the central government’s panel on Sunday night, said they will discuss the government’s proposal in their forums over the next two days and thereafter, decide the future course of action.
Discussions on issues like a law on MSP, the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations and loan waivers were held during the meeting, farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal noted.
“We will discuss in our forums on February 19-20 and take the opinion of experts regarding it and accordingly take a decision,” another farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher stated.
The meeting was held amid the protest by farmers, who were camping at the Punjab-Haryana border, demanding a legal MSP guarantee among other things.
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