Chandigarh, 22 February (H.S.): Farmers who have been agitating for a year on Punjab's Khanauri and Shambhu borders held a three-hour discussion on MSP guarantee in the sixth round meeting with the central government in Chandigarh on Saturday.

Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal and Prahlad Joshi participated in the meeting chaired by Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Saturday.

On behalf of the farmers, 28 farmers' representatives including the leaders of Samyukt Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) Jagjit Singh Dallewal, Saravan Singh Pandher and Abhinyu Kohar participated in this meeting. Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Cheema, Cabinet Minister Lal Chand Kataruchak and Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddiyan were also present in the meeting.

The farmers had earlier asked for the next meeting to be held in Delhi but the government scheduled it in Chandigarh.

“Today, the sixth round of talks with the Centre will take place. We have information that the Union agriculture minister and other ministers will be part of the meeting. The KMM and SKM (Non-Political) delegation will take part in the meeting,” Pandher said.

Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan along with Union Minister Pralhad Joshi reached the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Public Administration — the meeting venue — at 6:05 p.m. to meet the 28-member farmers’ delegation.

Shivraj Singh Chouhan reaches out to farmer leader Jagjit Dallewal, inquires about health ahead of farmers meeting.After this, Director General of Punjab Police Gaurav Yadav introduced the Union Minister to other farmer Leaders.

After the meeting Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that today the government and the farmers gave their arguments about MSP. He said that he is completely satisfied with the conversation in the meeting.

A concrete solution is expected to come out in the next meeting.

Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Cheema said that in today's meeting, farmer leaders submitted their report on MSP. There were data gaps in the report submitted by the Centre.

In today's meeting, there was a gap in the prices of the crops of Maharashtra, Karnataka and many other states. In the meeting, the Union Ministers asked the farmers to send a detailed report of their data to the Center in the coming days, which will be collated by the Centre. This report will be discussed in the next meeting after this report. Cheema said that there is a possibility of a concrete decision in the next meeting.

The next meeting between the farmers and the central government will be held in Chandigarh on March 19.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar