India / I urge farmers to end protest, new laws will bring betterment: Tomar

New Delhi: Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Friday urged the farmers protesting against the Centre’s three farm laws to end their agitation and said the government is ready to listen to them and discuss the objections against any provision of the laws.

Reaching out to the farmers, Tomar said the government has so far held 11 rounds of talks with them. “The Farm Bills will bring betterment to the lives of farmers. The Government of India has worked towards increasing MSP and towards more purchase at MSP,” he told a media briefing.

The Union Minister asserted that a large section of the country stands in support of these laws. “Still, if the farmers have any objection against any provision of the laws then the government is ready to listen to them, discuss with them and work on it,” he added.

Thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh, began their protest in November last year at three different border points of the national capital, demanding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government repeal these laws.

Demanding that the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, Farmers' (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 be rolled back, the farmers are asking the Centre to bring in a new law to guarantee minimum support price for their crops.

The ruling dispensation has, however, so far maintained that these laws are pro-farmer.

So far, the government has held 11 rounds of talks, the last being on January 22, with the farmers' unions to end the agitation over the laws enacted in September 2020.