Third round of talks between Centre and farmer leaders today

Chandigarh: Amid growing anger by farmers at Shambhu and Khanauri borders in Punjab and Haryana, three Union ministers will hold a meeting with leaders of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (non-political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha in Chandigarh at 5 pm on Thursday.

The Central government seems to be in a mood to quell the ongoing farmers’ struggle ahead of the ‘Bharat Bandh’ call given by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha for February 16. The central government has sent an invitation to the farmer leaders for formal talks, which has been accepted by the farmer organizations.

The meeting will be attended by Union ministers Piyush Goyal, Arjun Munda and Nityanand.

According to the details, the tactics adopted by the paramilitary forces and the Haryana Police to stop the farmers have triggered protests among the farmers of Punjab. Support for the ongoing struggle on the Punjab-Haryana border has started getting support from all over the state.

The BKU (Ugrahan) has also announced to block trains for four hours on Thursday. After receiving intelligence reports, the central government no longer wants to prolong this struggle.

According to sources, ahead of Thursday’s meeting, the Union ministers also held discussions in Delhi today. Union Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda is expected to hold a meeting with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh today on the issue.

On the other hand, a meeting was held with the farmer leaders in Rajpura this evening by senior police officers of the Punjab government in which they were apprised of the outline of today’s meeting.