On the personal intervention of the Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, the Union government and farmers arrived on consensus over various issues during first round of deliberations.
The meeting was held here at the MGSIPA complex and was attended by Union Ministers Piyush Goyal, Arjun Munda and Nityanand besides the Chief Minister and representatives of various farmers unions.
The Chief Minister said that during the first round of talks a general consensus emerged on rolling back the cases registered against farmers during the agitation against draconian laws. He said that the deliberations were held In a congenial atmosphere and the Union Ministers gave their in principle approval to sympathetically consider the demands of the farmers. Bhagwant Singh Mann said that exemplary punishment was sought against the manufacturers of the spurious seeds so that interests of the food growers is safeguarded adding that the issue of paddy straw burning was also vehemently raised.
The Chief Minister, while presenting the case of the farmers strongly, batted for continuing MSP regime on the crops by asserting that it is the need of hour to secure the interests of the farmers. He said that withdrawal of MSP is figment of imagination of only the arm chair economists, who sit in their cozy offices in national capital without bothering about the ground realities. Bhagwant Singh Mann said that any such move to discontinue the MSP regime will jeopardise the food security of the country and is not in the interest of the nation.
Dwelling on another issue, the Chief Minister also batted for giving major push to the crop diversification in the country as it will be beneficial for the people. He said that country today imports pulses from the countries like Mozambique and others whereas if farmers get remunerative prices then they can produce these pulses here. Bhagwant Singh Mann said that this will save the foreign reserves of the country besides bringing the farmers out of rut of paddy circle thereby saving the precious water in the state.
Profusely thanking the Union government and farmers for coming on table to discuss the issues, the Chief Minister said that this is the right platform for solving the issues. He said that we too don’t want that agitation should take place on these issues adding that rather these matters must be sorted out through bilateral dialogue. Bhagwant Singh Mann expressed hope that more such discussions will take place in coming times in the larger interests of the farmers and the people.