A fortnight after farmer organisations staging dharna at the Shambhu and Khanauri borders refused to negotiate with the Supreme Court-constituted committee, a delegation comprising leaders of several farm groups led by Kisan Union Sher-e-Punjab president Gurinder Singh Bhangu met the committee Monday with their demands, including they should be allowed to move Delhi with the permission to protest at Ram Leela Maidan or Jantar Mantar. Sources privy to the meeting said as many as 13 demands of farmer organisations, including the opening of the borders minimum support price (MSP), pension for the farmer, shortage of DAP and non-lifting of paddy, were discussed with the committee led by chairman Justice Nawab Singh and comprising retired IPS officer PS Sandhu, agriculture expert Devinder Sharma, professor of eminence, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Ranjit Singh Ghuman and agricultural economist Dr Sukhpal Singh. Apart from them, Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Vice-Chancellor Prof B R Kamboj is a special invitee. They said the meeting was also attended by the Chief Secretaries of Punjab and Haryana KAP Sinha and Vivek Joshi, respectively. The Haryana government stated that “the state suffered huge losses due to the farm agitation in 2019-2020, hence the borders were barricaded heavily, and the matter is pending in the apex court”. Sources said the farm leaders demanded the committee to keep them in the loop when they submit an interim report to the SC. “As Justice Singh told the farm leaders to clear the passage at the borders and he would like to visit them at the borders for talks, farm leaders said he should visit the borders on his own and find out who was blocking the road. The leaders said the Haryana government was barricading the road, not farmers,” they said. The breakthrough came after farmer leaders led by Jagjit Singh Dallewal accepted the invitation for the meeting, but Dallewal did not attend it. “At least the deadlock ended. We moved some distance. We had a good discussion. Farmer leaders were conveyed the mandate of the committee was agrarian reforms, and to have a platform where farmers and experts could work together. For the first time, the Dallewal group came for the meeting. It was informed at the meeting that Dallewal was unwell, so he could not come for the meeting,” they added.
