Talks between Centre & farm unions postponed to Jan 20 amid impasse over agrarian laws

In a big development on Monday, Union Agriculture Ministry anunced postponement of 11th round of talks between Centre and farmers' unions. This meeting will w be held at 2 pm on January 20 inste of Tuesday. Apart from 9 rounds of meetings that have taken place between Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Tomar and farmers' leers, Union Home Minister Amit Shah also met m on one occasion.

However, talks have failed to break impasse as protesting farmers are t willing to budge from ir demand for repealing Farmers' Produce Tre and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020,  Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and  Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020. At present, Supreme Court has stayed implementation of laws and constituted an expert committee to submit recommendations on agrarian laws. While Bhupinder Singh Mann has recused himself from panel, or three members will meet for first time on Tuesday. 

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Standoff continues

On January 15,  Centre's 10th round of talks with farmers' unions concluded with a detailed discussion on all three farm laws especially  Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020. Speaking to media, Union Agricultural Minister Narendra Singh Tomar stated that deliberations were held in a cordial atmosphere. Observing that  Ministers including Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and MoS Commerce Som Parkash tried to dress concerns of farmers, he ackwledged that agreement could t be reached.

Moreover, he revealed that farmer leers h rejected Centre's request to form a smaller committee to air ir grievances. While Tomar urged everyone to respect Supreme Court's order, BKU spokesperson Rakesh Tikait maintained that farmers will t appear before committee constituted by apex court. Expressing a willingness to continue deliberations with Union government, Tikait me it clear that re will be compromise on demand of repealing farm laws and legalising MSP. 

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