Farmers' Protest: Union ministers Narendra Tomar, Piyush Goyal lead Centre's talks with farmers at Vigyan Bhawan

The Centre’s crucial meeting with representatives of farm unions is underway at New Delhi’s Vigyan Bhawan on December 1, the sixth day of the ongoing protest by thousands of farmers on the capital's outskirts.

Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal and Union Minister of State for Commerce Som Prakash, who is an MP from Punjab, represented the Centre.

Representatives from 32 farm unions from Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh were invited for the talks.

"We are ready for a discussion to resolve their issues. Let's see," Tomar told reporters as he arrived for the meeting.

The talks were initially scheduled for December 3, but Tomar invited farmer leaders today. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh met Home Minister Amit Shah and Tomar at BJP chief JP Nadda’s house earlier in the day.

Another round of meetings with more farmer union representatives is scheduled to be held later in the day.

“Government has called the Punjab delegation at 3 pm. Later, the government will hold a meeting with delegations from Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Delhi at 7 pm today. We all want a final decision on the matter,” Naresh Tikait, President, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), told news agency ANI.

Though the farmers have voiced their objections to all the three farm laws, the main problem, essentially, is about the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act or the FPTC Act and its provisions which they fear will weaken the Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) mandis. The farmers are also unhappy with the removal of guaranteed minimum support price (MSP), which they say will leave them at the mercy of big corporations.

Farmers fear that with the virtual disbanding of the mandi system, they will not get an assured price for their crops and the arthiyas -- commission agents who also pitch in with loans for them -- will be out of business.

The farmers had emphasised that their demand for repeal of the new farm laws was non-negotiable. On Sunday, the farmers rejected the Centre’s offer after the government asked them to move to Burari grounds on the city's outskirts.

The three farm laws - the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, enacted in September, were projected by the Narendra Modi government as long-due reforms in the agriculture sector. But the anger among farmers, particularly in Congress-ruled Punjab and neighbouring Haryana, has been simmering since the enactment.