Kurukshetra. The central government, while talking to leaders of farmer organizations on Sunday, had proposed that cooperative agencies would enter into a five-year contract for purchasing produce at MSP from farmers adopting crop diversification. This contract will be for pulses, maize and cotton crops, which will be purchased at MSP for 5 years. Now the United Kisan Morcha has rejected this proposal and has said that the Central Government should also include oilseeds and millet in its MSP list. United Kisan Morcha leader Gurnam Singh Chaduni announced that if the central government does not accept their demand, then the farmers of Haryana will also join the movement.
#WATCH , Kurukshetra, Haryana | Farmer leader Gurnam Singh Charuni says, “There is time till 21st February. The government should think and understand that these two things (Oilseeds and Bajra) are very important (for procurement). Just like they mentioned pulses, maize and… pic.twitter.com/0VDvTUDqZM
— ANI (@ANI) February 19, 2024
Earlier, three rounds of talks had taken place between the central government and farmer leaders to end the movement. There was talk of the fourth round on Sunday. In which the Central Government had proposed to purchase some more crops at MSP for 5 years, but the United Kisan Morcha, which was earlier not saying anything in this regard, has now put forward a new demand. Now everyone’s eyes are on whether the central government accepts the latest demand of the United Kisan Morcha, or the farmers’ movement once again gains momentum.
Farmer leaders have put forward many other demands before the Centre. These include demands for withdrawal of the new law related to electricity, ending of lawsuits against farmers, pension of Rs 10,000 per month to farmers above 58 years of age, withdrawal from WTO and waiver of farmers’ loans. The central government had talked about adopting a positive attitude on some of these demands. Yesterday, when the proposal related to MSP was given by the Center and the farmer leaders looked positive on it, it seemed that now the movement will end. Now, with the way the United Kisan Morcha has put forth the latest demands, it does not seem at the moment that the farmers’ movement will end soon. Farmer leaders have already said that if no agreement is reached with the Centre, they will again march to Delhi from February 21. At present, groups of farmers have been stopped by the Haryana Police at the Shambhu border with Punjab.