Shah holding another meeting on farmers’ issues; Tomar, Goyal brief him

Union Home Minister Amit Shah is holding another round of meeting since Wednesday morning with his Cabinet colleagues Narendra Singh Tomar and Piyush Goyal to discuss the future course of action to resolve farmers' demands.

At the meeting, which began around 11.30 am, the Home Minister was apprised by Tomar and Goyal about Tuesday's parleys they had with the leaders of farmers at the Vigyan Bhavan. The government strategy for the fourth round of talks with farmer leaders of over 30 unions on Thursday will also be devised at the meeting.

Shah, who had decided to stay away from Tuesday meeting at the last moment along with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, is learnt to have taken stock of farmers' point of view and demands during Tuesday's meeting with Agriculture Minister Tomar as well as Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister Goyal.

Sources said that Shah and his ministerial colleagues will discuss the government's response as the farmers have rejected the offer to form a committee to study and analyse the three contentious central farm bills and other issues raised by the farmer leaders in the meeting.

It is learnt that the government's motive is to resolve the issues in Thursday's talks as the ongoing farmers' protest is hampering commuter movement and supply chains to the national capital.

Shah's colleagues, at the beginning of the meeting, shared the highlights of the over three-hour-long dialogue between a group of more than 30 farmer union leaders on Tuesday.

As the Tuesday meeting remained inconclusive, the fourth round of talks between the two sides will be held on Thursday as the farmers declared to continue their protest, and intensify their agitation until their demands are not met.

The government is still insisting on not rolling back the three farm laws which farmers allege are "anti-farm" and "black laws": The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

Thousands of farmers from Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh have been protesting at the Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur borders. The protest started on November 26. Presently, the farmers have gathered at Chilla border also -- a connecting route between Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.