Farmers' Protest: Delhi Chalo March Halted Till Feb 21 After Govt Presents MSP Proposal

After the central government proposed a new plan for the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops that the protesting farmers have been demanding, the farmer leaders announced that the Delhi Chalo march has been put on hold till February 21.

The protesting farmers said they need time to study the government’s MSP proposal and will decide the future course of action after that.

A panel of Union Ministers, including Piyush Goyal, Arjun Munda and Nityanand Rai met with the protesting farmers’ leaders for the fourth round of talks in Chandigarh on Sunday.

After the meeting, the Union Ministers proposed a five-year plan of buying pulses, maize and cotton crops at minimum support prices from the farmers.

Following the four-hour-long meeting, Goyal said that the “innovative” and “out-of-the-box” ideas came up during the discussions, adding that the farm leaders will decide on the proposal by Monday morning.

“Cooperative societies like the NCCF (National Cooperative Consumers Federation) and NAFED (National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India) will enter into a contract with those farmers who grow ‘tur dal’, ‘urad dal’, ‘masoor dal’ or maize for buying their crop at MSP for next five years,” said Goyal.

“There will be no limit on the quantity (purchased) and a portal will be developed for this,” he added.

It will save Punjab’s farming, improve the groundwater table, and save the land from getting barren which is already under stress, Goyal said.

The farmers pointed out that they want to diversify into maize crops but want to avoid suffering losses when the prices drop below the MSP, he said.

The protesting farmers have been demanding the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations, pension for farmers and farm labourers, farm debt waiver, no hike in electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases and “justice” for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, and compensation to the families of the farmers who died during a previous agitation in 2020-21.