The Punjab Police on Wednesday detained farmer leaders Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Sarwan Singh Pandher in Mohali. It is to be noted that group of farmers clashed with security personnel while they were trying to march to the Khanauri and Shambhu border points. Dallewal underwent a fast for 54 days before agreeing to take medical aid in January. He seeks guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP) for 24 crops from the government.
Apart from Dallewal and Pandher, other farmer leaders like Abhimanyu Kohar and Kaka Singh Kotda also detained by the police. The government has made a strategy to open the Shambhu and Khanauri borders and the protesting farmers were asked to vacate the points. Besides legal guarantee for MSP, the farmers are demanding debt waiver, pension for farmers and farm labourers.
The seventh round of talks between farmer leaders and a central delegation concluded, with Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announcing the next meeting on May 4. The talks were held to discuss the various demands raised by the farmers, including a legal guarantee for MSP crops, among others. Chouhan said after the meeting, a positive discussion took place in a cordial atmosphere.
Consumer Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi and Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal also attended the meeting held at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Public Administration in Chandigarh. Punjab Minister Harpal Singh Cheema and state Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian too attended the meeting. The last meeting between the farmers and the central delegation was held here on February 22
The last meeting between the farmers and the central delegation was held here on February 22, which was attended by Chouhan, Joshi, and Goyal. A meeting between a central team led by Joshi and farmers’ representatives was held here on February 14 as well. Before that, four rounds of talks took place between central ministers and protesting farmers in February last year, but they remained inconclusive.