During the fifth round of talks to break the ice over farm bills, the centre on Saturday gave a written proposal to farmers’ representatives at the meeting.
The Centre said it needs more time for internal discussion while the protesting farmers have agreed to the sixth round of talks, scheduled for Wednesday, December 9.
Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Union Minister Piyush Goyal were leading today’s talks.
As reported by NDTV, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a high-level meet at his home Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar over the crisis.
Last evening, the protesting farmers have called for a ‘Bharat band’ on December 8 in order to mark their protest.
40 farmers’ union met at Delhi-Haryana border last evening and they also said that they’ll block all roads to the national capital, adding they’ll also occupy all highway toll gates across the country.
In a separate development, a petition has been filed in the Supreme Court sought immediate removal or shifting of the protesting farmers.
“Life of lakhs of people protesting at Delhi Borders is at immediate threat. If by chance this coronavirus disease takes the shape of community spread, it will cause a havoc in the country,” said the petition.
Marathon talks between the Centre and the agitating farmer unions on Thursday failed to end the standoff over the new farm laws as the protestors refused to budge on their demands and another round of discussions will be held later in a bid to forge a resolution.
The government side, led by Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, said that they were ready to bring some amendments to the laws, but the other side stuck to their demand of repealing the three ”hastily-passed” farm laws, saying there were several loopholes and deficiencies.
Agitating farmers had on Wednesday demanded that the Centre convene a special session of Parliament and repeal the new farm laws as they threatened to block other roads in Delhi and ”take more steps” if it failed to do so.