Govt offers talks while cops hurl tear gas shells

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has also sent an advisory to the Punjab government asking it to maintain law and order in the wake of the farmers agitation, ANI reported.

Farmers resumed their 'Delhi Chalo' march today after they rejected the Centre's proposal for procuring pulses, maize and cotton at the minimum support price (MSP) by government agencies for five years.

Thousands of farmers, who began their march to Delhi on February 13, were stopped at the Haryana border, where they clashed with security personnel. The farmers have been camping at the Shambhu and Khanauri points between Punjab and Haryana since then.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha are spearheading the march to press the Centre to accept their demands, including a legal guarantee on the MSP for crops and farm loan waiver.

The last round of talks between the farmers and the government ended past midnight on February 18 when a panel of ministers proposed buying five crops — moong dal, urad dal, tur dal, maize and cotton — from farmers at the MSP for five years through central agencies.

The protesting farmer leaders have formally rejected the offer, with Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal saying that it was not in the farmers' interest.

On farmer leaders rejecting the government's proposal over MSP, Union Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda told ANI, "We want to do good and several opinions can be given for doing so, as we always welcome good opinions. But to find a way on how that opinion will be fruitful, the only way is conversation. Through conversation, a solution will surely come out."

On February 20, farmers have brought excavators at the Shambhu border point in order to make their way through the multi-layered barricades set up by the Haryana security personnel. Some of the farmers are carrying masks to protect themselves from tear-gas shells.

Tight security arrangements are in place at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points.

Kisan Mazdoor Morcha leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said that the Centre should convene a daylong Parliament session to bring a law on the MSP for crops. Pandher said the farmers have three big demands — a legal guarantee on the MSP for all crops, the implementation of the 'C2 plus 50%' formula as recommended by the Swaminathan Commission and farm loan waiver.

Besides a legal guarantee on the MSP, the farmers are demanding the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission's recommendations, pension for farmers and farm labourers, farm loan waiver, no hike in the electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases and "justice" for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence in Uttar Pradesh, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013 and compensation to the families of the farmers who died during a previous agitation in 2020-21.