Ugrahan said that the ministers have assured them that those farmers who have been arrested during the course of the agitation will be freed by Diwali. (File)A delegation of BKU (Ugrahan) met a committee of three ministers of Punjab government here on Monday to discuss the ongoing farmers’ agitation against the agriculture laws and the way forward but the meeting remained inconclusive.
Speaking to the media at Punjab Bhawan after the meeting, Joginder Singh Ugrahan, president of the union, said that they were planning to hold a demonstration outside the Punjab Assembly but they were invited for talks by the Punjab government with three ministers -Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and Sukhbinder Singh Sukhsarkaria.
“We have given them our charter of demands which includes passing legislation which undoes the agriculture laws passed by the Centre. We have also asked them to ensure that the APMC amendment Bill that was passed by the Punjab Vidhan Sabha in 2017 and a Mandi Act amendment passed in 2013 should not be implemented in the state,” Ugrahan said.
When asked how the talks went, he said that it could not be said that they yielded any great results but added that it could also be said that they were not helpful.
Ugrahan said that the ministers have assured them that those farmers who have been arrested during the course of the agitation will be freed by Diwali. He added that the agitation would continue till the demands of farmers are met.
Jhanda Singh Jethuke of BKU (Ugrahan) said that they had raised the issue of Montek Singh Ahluwalia committee report and had asked that it should not be implemented in Punjab. “The ministers told us that the report of the committee has not yet been received by the state government,” he said.
Jails and Cooperation Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said that the talks with the farmers were fruitful and that these would be taken forward in the days to come.
All the three ministers were non-committal about the kind of legislation that may be brought by the state government to negate the effects of the Centre’s agriculture laws. “We cannot discuss anything with the media because then the opposition parties may take umbrage over the fact that the matter was not discussed in the House first,” he said.
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