Farmers union representatives from 31 organisations have been called to meet with the Centre on Friday, 13 November, NDTV reported.
The meeting will involve the leaders opposing the agriculture ordinances and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal and Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.
The farmers have been protesting by blocking roads and railway tracks against the contentious farm laws since early September, when they were passed in the Lok Sabha. Amarinder Singh, the chief minister of Punjab, has welcomed this development and urged the farmers to stand down.
Minister Sunder Sham Arora, in an interview with PTI, said that the railway blockade has resulted in “losses to the state economy worth Rs 22,000 crore” and “the railways have suffered an estimated Rs 1,200 crore loss.”
In October, Punjab was the first state to formally oppose the farm laws. In an attempt to reject the ordinances, the Punjab Assembly passed three bills, one to counter each law.
Why are the Farm Laws Controversial?
On 27 September, President Ram Nath Kovind signed three ordinances - Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion & Facilitation) Ordinance 2020, The Farmers (Empowerment & Protection) Assurance and Farm Service Ordinance 2020 and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance 2020.
While the government stated that the farm laws would benefit and empower the farmers by opening inter and intra state channels, experts and farmers themselves had opposing views in the matter.
The farmers who depend on Agricultural Produce Market Committee’s monopoly were angry with these ordinances, as they felt that an open market would end the minimum support price (MSP) of their produce.
(With inputs from NDTV and PTI)
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