1.55 pm: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee threatens to launch a nationwide agitation if the “anti-farmer” laws are not withdrawn by the government.

“I am very much concerned about the farmers, their lives and livelihood,” she tweets. “GOI [government of India] must withdraw the anti-farmer bills. If they do not do so immediately we will agitate throughout the state and the country. From the very start, we have been strongly opposing these anti-farmer bills.”

She also says the Trinamool Congress will meet on Friday. “We will discuss how the Essential Commodities Act is impacting common people and resulting in sky rocketing prices,” Banerjee adds. “The central government must withdraw this anti-people law.”

1.38 pm: Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Railways, Commerce and Food Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for Commerce Som Parkash, who is an MP from Punjab, are holding talks with the representatives of 35 farmers’ unions at the Vigyan Bhawan in Delhi.

1.30 pm: Former Punjab Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal leader Parkash Singh Badal returns Padma Vibhushan to protest “the betrayal of the farmers by government of India”, reports ANI.

1.17 pm: Bhim Army Chief Chandrashekhar Azad meets the farmers at Singhu border.

1.14 pm: Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury urges Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to convene a short Winter Session of the Parliament to discuss farmers protest, vaccine development and other matters, The Indian Express reports.

1.07 pm: The Punjab government announces a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each for the families of two farmers who died during the ongoing protests, ANI reports.

12.55 pm: Amarinder Singh says he urged Amit Shah to resolve the standoff with the farmers as it affected his state’s economy and also national security, ANI reports. “:Discussion is going on between farmers and Centre, there’s nothing for me to resolve,” he adds.

12.50 pm: The movement of traffic on the key Noida Link Road or Chilla road remains obstructed amid the protests, PTI reports. Only one of the two carriageways on the road is open.

12.43 pm: The meeting between the farmers and the Centre begins.

12.22 pm: Farmers representatives reach Vigyan Bhawan in Delhi for their meeting with the Centre.

12.21 pm: Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar says he is hoping for a positive outcome after the talks with farmers, according to ANI.

12.19 pm: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh arrives at Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s residence for their meeting, ANI reports.

11.18 am: 60-year-old farmer Gurjant Singh died at the Tikri border on Wednesday morning, The Indian Express reports. This is the fifth death to take place amid the protest.

11.16 am: Farmers’ representatives leave the Singhu border for their meeting with the Centre, ANI reports.

11.10 am: The farmers continue their protest at the Ghazipur border between Delhi and UP. Superintendent of Police (city) Abhishek Verma says that the police are trying to persuade the farmers to end the blockade on the key route, ANI reports. “We are hopeful that the roadway will be opened soon,” he adds.

9.31 am: Heavy security is seen at the Singhu border.

9.27 am: Bharatiya Janata Party MP Manoj Tiwari alleges that the “tukde tukde gang” is trying to turn the farmers’ protest into a Shaheen Bagh-like agitation, PTI reports.

BJP leaders often accuse their opponents and dissidents of being members of a “tukde tukde” gang, or a group of people trying to divide India.

9.24 am: A group of farmers from Rajasthan joins the protest at the Delhi-Haryana border, ANI reports.

9.20 am: The Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee says it will not hold any meeting with the Centre until Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks to the leaders of all 507 farmers’ unions, ANI reports. The union accuses the Centre of trying to divide the farmers.

7.55 am: The Lok Sangharsh Morcha, one of the groups engaged in the protest, had said the fresh round of talks would be the “last chance” for the government to take a decision on the new laws, failing which, the farmers “movement will become huge and the government will fall”.

7.53 am: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh will meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah ahead of the talks, according to reports. The meeting is scheduled to take place around 9.30 am.

7.50 am: The Centre has called for a fourth round of talks with the farmers on Thursday, after the meeting between the government and over 30 union leaders on Tuesday failed to break the deadlock. During the discussion, the government had offered to set up a committee to look into the concerns related to the laws. But the farmers turned down the idea, emphasising that their demand was “non-negotiable”.

7.45 am: What are the three farm laws?

The Parliament had passed 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 – in September. They were signed into laws by President Ram Nath Kovind on September 27.

Taken together, the three legislations loosen regulations on the sale, pricing and storage of agricultural produce. They allow farmers to sell outside mandis notified by the Agricultural Produce Market Committee. They enable contract farming through deals with private sector companies. They take food items like cereals and pulses off the list of essential commodities, lifting stock limits on such produce.

Farmers and traders have alleged that the government wants to discontinue the minimum support price regime in the name of reforms. They fear that the laws will leave them at the mercy of corporate powers. The government has maintained that farm laws will bring farmers better opportunities and usher in new technologies in agriculture.

The government claims the new laws would give farmers the freedom to sell in the open market. But farmers say the laws will weaken the minimum support price mechanism under which the government buys agricultural produce, leave farmers to the mercy of market forces and threaten food security.

Most Opposition parties and farmers’ organisations across the country have strongly opposed the bills. The Shiromani Akali Dal, one of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s oldest allies, pulled out of the National Democratic Alliance in protest against these bills.

7.40 am: Haryana Minister JP Dalal, while speaking about the protests, alleges that China and Pakistan are trying to destabilise India in the name of the farmers, ANI reports.

7.35 am: Rakesh Tikait, the spokesperson of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, says all farmers’ organisations in the country should hit the streets now, ANI reports. “If the government wants, it can resolve the issues,” he says.

7.30 am: Thousands of farmers from several states in India, especially Punjab and Haryana, have camped at Delhi’s borders for seven days now, demonstrating against the Centre’s agriculture laws. The farmers had to brave tear gas and water cannons on their march to enter Delhi as the police refused them entry.

The authorities had taken extraordinary measures to set up blockades on highways, parking buses, trucks and other large vehicles. At some places, they even dug up trenches to obstruct farmers, many of whom camped on highways for the night in biting cold. Dramatic scenes unfolded at the borders as the farmers threw barricades set up by the police into a river. They also clashed with the police on a bridge.

Eventually, they were allowed to enter the Capital and were designated a protest site not to their liking. Many chose to camp at the Delhi border, especially at the Tikri and Singhu border crossings.

Here’s a quick recap of Wednesday’s developments: