Major issues can be resolved through dialogue, Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij asserted ahead of a meeting between three Union ministers and farmer leaders on Monday over their demands and the planned February 13 ‘Dilli Chalo’ march.
Tractor-trolleys in large numbers have set out from different parts of Punjab to join the march, while in neighbouring Haryana, authorities have fortified the state’s border at many places using concrete blocks, iron nails and barbed wire to scuttle it.
“Big issues can be resolved through dialogue and this issue will also be resolved,” Vij said while replying to questions by reporters on the march by farmers’ to press the Centre to accept their demands, including the enactment of a law to guarantee a minimum support price (MSP) for crops.
He said farmers are ‘andattas’ and they feed the 140 crore people of the country. The Narendra Modi government focuses on the poor, the youth, women and farmers, Vij said.
To another question on the barricading at different points on the Haryana-Punjab border, Vij said, “We will do what is necessary to ensure the safety of our state’s people and maintain peace.”
The talks between farmer leaders and Union ministers Piyush Goyal, Arjun Munda and Nityanand Rai will be held in Chandigarh — the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana. It is scheduled to begin at 5 pm.
These is the second round of discussions between them. The first was held on February 8.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha have announced that more than 200 farm unions would march to Delhi on Tuesday.
Besides a legal guarantee for MSP, farmers are also demanding the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations, pensions for farmers and farm labourers, farm debt waiver, withdrawal of police cases and “justice” for victims of the Lakhimpur Kheri violence.
