Farmer leaders reached Vigyan Bhawan on Tuesday to attend a meeting with the Centre as protesters continued their agitation at Delhi border points against the government's new farm laws.
Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Monday had invited leaders of farmer unions for talks on Tuesday, instead of December 3, citing the COVID-19 pandemic and cold.
A group of 36 farmer leaders will attend the meeting. Of the 36 farmer union leaders, 30 hail from Punjab, and the remaining six owe allegiance to Sanyukt Kishan Morcha and other farmer organisations from Haryana and other places, reported news agency IANS.
The leaders and representatives of farmers' unions decided to accept the central government's invitation to hold talks after a three-hour-long meeting at the Singhu entry point on the Delhi-Ambala route.
Hours before the Centre's meeting with protesting farmers on Tuesday, Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, BJP chief J P Nadda and others held marathon discussions on the matter.
Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah along with Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal held a meeting for over three hours over the farmers protest against the Centre's new agriculture reform laws.
Meanwhile, peaceful sit-ins by farmers, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, continue at the Singhu and Tikri borders with no untoward incident reported after Friday's violence, while the numbers of protestors swelled at the Ghazipur border on Monday.
The opposition parties too stepped up pressure, asking the Centre to "respect the democratic struggle" of the farmers and repeal the laws. The farmers have expressed apprehension that the Centre's farm laws would pave the way for the dismantling of the minimum support price system, leaving them at the "mercy" of big corporates.
The government has maintained that the new laws will bring farmers better opportunities and usher in new technologies in agriculture. Thousands of farmers from Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh have been protesting at the Delhi borders since November 26.
Currently, these farmers are staying put at Delhi's Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur borders on the Delhi-Ambala, Delhi-Hisar and Delhi-Ghaziabad routes respectively, demanding repeal of three farm laws enacted in September.
(Inputs from PTI and IANS)
