Centre ready to hold farm bills for up to 1.5 years

New Delhi : The Central government on Wednesday proposed the suspension of new three farm laws for a duration of up to 1.5 years in their 10th round of talks with the farmers' union on Wednesday. The next meeting has been scheduled for January 22.

After the meeting, Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar announced, “Government ready to keep three farm laws suspended for 1-1.5 years, during which solution can be reached with mutual dialogue.”

He added, “Talks held in cordial atmosphere despite some ‘naram-garam’ moments. However, I feel that talks are progressing in the right direction and there is a possibility of finding a resolution on January 22. I’m happy that farmer unions have taken this very seriously and said that they would consider it tomorrow and convey their decision on January 22.”

However, the farmers have demanded a complete scrapping of the bills and not just suspension for some time.

Reacting to the government’s proposal, a farmer union leader said, “There is no point in suspending the laws and made it clear that we want the repeal of the laws.”

The meeting began at around 2.45 pm with the three ministers greeting farmer leaders on the occasion of Gurupurab. The meeting resumed at around 5.15 pm after a lunch break, but the two sides took another break at around 6 pm during which the farmer leaders discussed the government proposal for suspending the laws for a fixed period of time.

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