Farmers meet to draw future moves as demands remain pending

New Delhi: As the Union government has repealed the three contentious farm laws, the future course of action for the protesting farmers will be decided at the Samyukt Kisan Morcha's (SKM) meeting on Saturday, Hindustan Times reported. The farmers had said that the withdrawal of the laws was only one among several of their demands.

According to BKU (Bharatiya Kisan Union) leader Rakesh Tikait, the Saturday meeting will mainly discuss how their demonstrations would run further. Their demand for Minimum Support Price (MSP) has not been met yet, he noted, after a meeting of farmer leaders and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday. The talks with the CM ended inconclusively, but the state government agreed to withdraw cases registered against the protesting farmers.

Tikait said that they need state-wise compensation for deaths of farmers and employment for their families in government service, similar to as in Punjab. Haryana government didn't accept these demands, along with the demand for a space to set up a memorial at the Kundli border.

Gurnam Singh Chaduni of BKU repeated what Tikait said. PTI reported Chaduni saying that they did not get a satisfactory reply from the Haryana government, and talks broke down.

The SKM had called off a tractor march to Parliament, scheduled on November 29, and had written to PM Modi that they would wait till December 4 for the Union government to respond formally to its demands. Meanwhile, the Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar had urged the protesting farmers to go back home after farm laws were repealed through Farm Laws Repeal Bill, 2021. Claiming the government has no record of the number of farmers who died during the protest, he informed the Lok Sabha that the question of providing financial aid, therefore, does not arise.