Dushyant Chautala urges PM Modi to resume talks with protesting farmers

Chandigarh, Apr 17: Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and urged him to resume talks with the farmers protesting the Centre's three farm laws.

Chautala further said a team of three to four cabinet ministers may restart discussion with the farmers who have been camping at the Delhi borders for over 100 days.

"I would like to bring to your kind attention that our 'Annadattas' are on roads at Delhi border agitating in respect of newly enacted three farm laws of the Central government. It is a matter of concern that such agitation is going on for more than hundred days," Chautala wrote in the letter.

Chautala said he believes every problem has a solution by way of mutual discussions.

"The earlier discussion between the central government and farmers' union brought a few solutions to the concerns raised by Samyukt Morcha.

"In this regard,a team consisting of three to four senior cabinet ministers may lead the delegation for resuming talks with farmers so as to bring an amicable conclusion in this issue," he wrote in his letter dated April 15.

The deputy chief minister wrote the letter days after state's home minister Anil Vij's missive to Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, saying talks with peasants should be resumed to resolve the issue.

Vij had said he was concerned as a large number of farmers were sitting on Haryana's borders amid a surge in COVID-19 cases in the state.

Thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at three border points of Delhi -- Singhu, Tikri (along Haryana), and Ghazipur -- demanding a repeal of the three farm laws enacted by the Centre in September last year.

The Centre says the new farm laws will free farmers from middlemen, giving them more options to sell their crops.

The protesting farmers, however, say the laws will weaken the minimum support price (MSP) system and leave them at the mercy of big corporates.