The agitation by farmers to protest against the three farmlaws continued for the 10th day on Saturday even as their leaders are all setto hold the fifth round of talks with the Centre at Vigyan Bhavan here in theafternoon.
Before the talks slated to begin at 2 pm, Union HomeMinister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Agriculture MinisterNarendra Singh Tomar reached PM's residence here for a meeting with PrimeMinister Narendra Modi to discuss resolution of the farmers' demands.
The government has called for a serious consideration of alldemands and grievances of farmers and hopes that Saturday's meeting will yieldresults to break the impasse.
The government has assured to continue the procurement ofcrops at minimum support price (MSP) and consider suggestions on AgriculturalProduce Marketing Committee 'mandis'.
Meanwhile, farmer leaders are adamant on the demand forwithdrawal of the three new laws relating to agriculture. They maintain thatfarmers will not benefit and hence these should be withdrawn. The government'sproposal to amend the new agricultural laws is not acceptable to the farmerleaders.
Farmer leader Gurvinder Singh Kool Kalan, who owesallegiance to Bharatiya Kisan Union (Lakhowal), told IANS that the governmentshould withdraw these three laws, warning that the protests will continue tillthe government did not meet this demand.
The farmers are also demanding an end to stringentpunishment for stubble-burning. "We demand withdrawal of this ordinance.At the same time, farmers also want withdrawal of the Electricity (Amendment)Bill 2020," Gurvinder Singh said.
Farmer leaders were slated to leave for Vigyan Bhavan fromthe Singhu border around noon. Earlier, talks between the two sides was held onDecember 3.
According to information, Union Ministers Tomar, PiyushGoyal and Som Prakash along with other officials will be present duringSaturday's talks.