Delhi Chalo march: Centre opens direct line of communication with farmers, calls meeting on Feb 12

The SKM (Non-Political) and the KMM have announced the ‘Delhi Chalo’ march by more than 200 farmers’ unions to press the Centre for accepting several demands, including enactment of a law to guarantee a minimum support price (MSP) for crops.

Earlier, the three ministers had flew down to Chandigarh on Thursday and held a meeting with the farmer leaders. That meeting was coordinated by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, who had later said that a general consensus had emerged on rolling back the cases registered against farmers during the agitation against the now-repealed farm laws. The Union ministers, he said, had also agreed on exemplary punishment for the manufacturers and sellers of spurious seeds.

Soon after the meeting, the ruling Aam Aadmi had put an illustration on their social media page highlighting Mann as a bridge between the Centre and the farmers stating that “Punjab government will always stand shoulder to shoulder with the farmers to convey their demands to the Centre and secure their rights”.

Asked about the letter and the second round of meeting, Pandher said, “The first round of talks was attended by a 10-member delegation of farmer leaders. The delegation will bigger for the February 12 meeting. We will soon decided the names of the leaders who will attend the meeting”.

Dallewal, meanehile, warned that “if talks fail”, a convoy of more than 2,000 tractors will move from Punjab towards Delhi. “We will push aside all barricades as we had done in November 2020. Over 500 tractors from UP and nearly 200 from Rajasthan will also take part in march,” he added.

Bharatiya Kisan Union (Lakhowal) general secretary Harinder Singh Lakhowal too warned that if Punjab, Haryana or Delhi governments “use repression of any kind on farmers marching towards national capital, members of our union will join the protest march”.

Lakhowal is a member of the national coordination committee of Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM). The SKM is not part of the Delhi Chalo protest march. Lakhowal clarified that the decision to join the protest march, if need be, is that of his union only and not of the SKM.