The government has asked the representatives of farmers' unions to identify the specific issues related to the farm reform laws and share them with the government on Wednesday for consideration. These issues will be discussed during the fourth round of meeting to be held on Thursday, the ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare said in a statement.
Tuesday's meeting between the unions and a group of ministers remained inconclusive with the farmers rejecting the government's offer of setting up a committee to look into the issues raised by them.
The nearly three-hour-long-meeting at Vigyan Bhawan was attended by Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Railways and Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for Commerce Som Parkash.
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During the meeting, the government has apparently conveyed categorically to the farmers that the new laws cannot be repealed.
“We will try to solve them (issues raised by farmers). We had told them that if they come up with clause-by-clause objections, we will try to address them,” Tomar said while talking to media after the meeting.
The protesting farmers have expressed apprehension that the Centre's farm laws would pave the way for the dismantling of the minimum support price system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.
The government has, however, maintained that the new laws will bring farmers better opportunities and usher in new technologies in agriculture.
According to ANI, the government asked farmers' leaders to give names of four to five people from their organisations and constitute a committee which will also have representatives from the government and agricultural experts to discuss the new laws. However, the unions rejected the proposal.
PTI quoted sources as saying that the ministers were of the view that it was difficult to reach a decision while interacting with such large groups and therefore they suggested meeting with a smaller group, but the farmer leaders were firm that they would meet collectively only.
The farmers' unions later said the talks remained inconclusive and that they will continue their protests.
"Our movement will continue and we will definitely take back something from the government, be it bullets or peaceful solution. They want discussion and not a solution. We will come for more discussions again with them," said one of the leaders.
"Our agitation will continue. Tomorrow a committee will list out the problems in the anti-farmers laws. Day after tomorrow, we will meet again. We have told them that we will continue our protest until the laws are withdrawn," another leader was quoted as saying by the ANI.
Meanwhile, peaceful sit-ins by farmers, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, continued at the Singhu and Tikri borders with no untoward incident reported after Friday's violence, while the numbers of protesters swelled at the Ghazipur border on Monday.
