'Mutual consensus' between Centre, farmers unions on two issues; check out details

The deadlock between the Centre and the farmers' union is finally sorting out with the Centre on Wednesday saying there has been a "mutual consensus" on two of the four demands raised by the farmer unions. The two sides agreed to meet again on January 4.

The Centre has agreed to "decriminalise" stubble burning by excluding farmers from the ambit of 'Commission for the Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Ordinance 2020'.

The government has also allowed to drop those provisions of the draft Electricity Amendment Bil, 2020, which are intended to change the existing mode of subsidy payment to consumers.

However, there has been no headway on the repeal of the three contentious farm laws enacted in September. These will be discussed when the two sides meet again next week.

Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said, "There has been mutual consensus between the government and farmer unions on two of four issues that union leaders placed for discussion at the meeting today."

On the draft Electricity Amendment Bill, Tomar said, "The unions demanded that the existing system of power subsidy paid by the state to the consumers should continue. Mutual consensus has been reached on that demand as well."

"There were four points on the agenda. Out of these, aapsi razamandi (mutual consensus) has been reached on two -- or 50 per cent. The meeting took place in a very pleasant atmosphere," he further added.

"Unions have been demanding the repeal of the three farm laws and we have tried to tell them that the government is ready to discuss provisions on which farmers have problems," he said.

Commenting on the outcome of the meeting, Samyukt Kisan Morcha leader Darshan Pal said, "The meeting is not 50 per cent successful, it's only 25 per cent successful as consensus has emerged on two smaller issues while the two bigger issues still remain unresolved."

Joginder Singh Ugrahan, BKU (Ugrahan) president, said: "When we started the meeting, we were not hopeful, but as the talks proceeded, they agreed to two of our demands. However, our main demands of repeal of farm laws and purchase of crops on MSP are still pending. These will be discussed on January 4. Finally, something positive has come out of these talks."

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