Farmers demonstration in 2024 Union ministers meet in Chandigarh with union leaders

In the midst of a standoff between protestors and security forces at two locations on the Punjab-Haryana border, three Union ministers started their third round of negotiations with the heads of the farmer unions that are demonstrating in Chandigarh on Thursday night.Union Ministers Arjun Munda, Piyush Goyal, and Nityanand Rai met with farmer leaders in response to the ongoing "Delhi Chalo" agitation by the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha and the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (Non-Political). Attending the meeting at the Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration in Sector 26 was Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann as well.The two parties will be having their third round of discussions; the first two, held on February 8 and 12, ended in a deadlock. The protest was initiated in response to requests by farmers for a minimum support price (MSP) law for crops and loan waivers, which the BJP-led Centre was under pressure to grant. A guaranteed MSP cannot be announced, as the Center has made clear.The leaders of the farmer unions and the Union ministers Piyush Goyal, Arjun Munda, and Nityanand Rai have ended their third round of talks with the Punjab Chief Minister in Chandigarh. Speaking to the media, Minister Arjun Munda said that the discussion was fruitful because the farmers had raised a lot of significant issues. The following set of meetings, according to him, will take place on Sunday.Long after midnight, the third round of negotiations between the Punjabi farmers who are protesting and three central ministries ended in a constructive manner. The conversation was "very positive," according to Union Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda, and they had agreed to get together again on Sunday night.

The leaders of the farmer unions referred to the talks on MSP, the Swaminathan report, and loan waiver as "fruitful," and Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann declared that he would keep mediating peace for the state since he did not want to witness young people being targeted by tear gas.The state's internet would be restored, and the suspended social media pages of the farmer leaders would be reactivated, Central leaders promised. As the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha coordinator, Sarvan Singh Pandher, put it, "If the commitments made during the meeting are translated into action, it would be highly beneficial for the farmer." This statement summed up the conversation well. Speaking to the media, Mann stated that all of the demands put out by the farmers were considered in a constructive setting. "As the state's chief, I stood up since Punjabi farmers are the ones most impacted. All of the topics were thoroughly discussed."I brought up the subject of three districts' internet bans and how they affect students taking exams. Why are they at fault? The farmers displayed shot rounds. We remarked that this was not how the farmers should be handled.