Farmers' Protest: 'Farmers Will Not Return If...': Dallewal Warns Ahead Of Meeting With Union Ministers

Chandigarh: The central government should not dilly-dally and accept the demands of farmers before the model code of conduct comes into force, farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal said ahead of a meeting with a panel of Union ministers here on Sunday. The Lok Sabha elections are expected to be announced next month.

Three Union ministers and farmer leaders will meet here to discuss their demands, including a legal guarantee for minimum support price for crops and farm debt waiver.The meeting comes amid thousands of farmers camping at the Shambhu and Khanauri points of the Punjab-Haryana border with layers of barricades and a large number of security personnel halting their protest march to the national capital.

The two sides -- ministers and farmer leaders -- had met earlier on February 8, 12 and 15 but talks remained inconclusive.

'Farmers Will Not Return...': Jagjit Singh Dallewal

"We want to tell the government that it should avoid the policy of dilly-dallying," Dallewal told reporters at the Shambhu border point. If the government thinks it will continue to hold meetings till the code of conduct is imposed, and then say it cannot do anything as the code is in force"...Farmers are not going to return", he said."The government should find a solution to our demands before the code of conduct comes into force," Dallewal said.

He said that the meeting will begin at 5:30 pm.The agitation, he said, has not been sponsored by any political party and reiterated the demands for an ordinance on giving legal guarantee to MSP for crops, implementation of the Swaminathan Commission's recommendations and debt waiver.

"The government still call a session again if its intention is clean," he said, referring to a session in Parliament for the issues. Another farmer leader Surjit Singh Phool accused the Centre of not fulfilling its assurances of releasing detained farmers, and restoring internet services in certain areas of Punjab and social media accounts of farmer leaders.

Union Agriculture and Farmer Welfare Minister Arjun Munda, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai will be part of the meeting with farmer leaders.Farmers of the 'Delhi Chalo' agitation, which entered its sixth day on Sunday, are also demanding pension for farmers and farm labourers, and withdrawal of police cases.