New Delhi, Dec 2 A "Samyukt Kisan Morcha" of different alliances of farmer organisations from all over India on Wednesday wrote to Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, asserting that the government should not indulge in any divisive agenda with regard to the farmers' movement which is united in its demands.
The Morcha requested it be ensures that representatives of various farmer organisations and alliances are decided by them, and not the government and that all-India alliances which have been in the forefront get representation in the consultations.
It was also requested to ensure that all consultations happen at the same time without any parallel talks with different organisations at different times and locations.
"The initiation of unconditional talks with farmer leaders, that too under the aegis of Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, without the involvement of Defence and Home Ministries, is a step forward from the government, especially after all the hurdles and obstacles that protesting farmers faced so far," the letter read.
"The expert panel proposal is not acceptable to us. Given the failure of earlier such efforts, we see no point in this. The lack of sincerity of the government makes it use this tool of expert panels that it sets up, with the government itself inevitably deciding the constitution and terms of reference, and also not adopting, inevitably again, the recommendations that come out of such panels. Therefore, farmers can see through the ploy of meaningless expert panels," it said.
The organisation demanded that the Parliament be convened immediately to repeal the three farm acts, and the government give in writing that it would not introduce the Electricity Amendment Bill 2020 in the Parliament.
"Tens of thousands of farmers including mothers, children and old-aged are sitting peacefully and patiently on the National Highways into Delhi for the past 7 days, braving the chill with determination. Three deaths have already been reported. It would be inhuman on the part of the Union Government to not resolve farmers' genuine and legitimate demands immediately, and bring normalcy at the earliest," the letter read.
( With inputs from IANS )
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