Resume talks with protesting farmers, Vij urges Tomar

New Delhi, Apr 11: Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij has written to Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Sing Tomar, urging him to resume talks with farmers protesting against the Centre's farm laws as the coronavirus scare looms large.

Maintaining that a surge in coronavirus cases is being seen across the country and the situation is turning bad in Haryana too, Vij said he is worried about the farmers protesting on the state borders with Delhi.

All possible efforts are being made to bring the corona situation under control in Haryana but my worry pertains to thousands of agitating farmers who are sitting on the borders of Haryana and I have to save them from corona, the minister said.

There is also a worry that because of them the disease may not spread in the rest of the state, wrote Vij in his letter, dated April 9.

He also mentioned that being in agitation mode, farmers are not able to follow all COVID-related guidelines.

The Centre has made a lot of efforts to resolve the problems of farmers and held multiple rounds of talks with them but due to some reasons, the solution is yet to come, he said.

A situation of uncertainty prevails as there have been no talks for a long time. I am of the belief that a problem can be solved through dialogue, he said.

Therefore, I request you that the talks should be resumed so that the issue is resolved and the protest ends, Vij said in his Hindi letter.

A few days ago, Vij had said that he would be writing to the Union agriculture minister for the resumption of talks.

In his letter, he further mentioned that going by the infection numbers, it seems the fight against the pandemic will go on for a long time and for this, cooperation of all sections of society is necessary.

Haryana has recorded a spike in COVID cases in the past several days, prompting the government to shut schools for students of Classes up to 8 till April 30.

Meanwhile, 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.