Farmers protest: Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann to meet farmer leaders
PremiumAs many as 36 farmer leaders will be taking part in the meeting, a farmer leader said
Protesting Punjab farmers today said they will be meeting Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for redressal of their demands, including a bonus on wheat and beginning paddy sowing from June 10.
Farmer leaders said the Mohali deputy commissioner and senior superintendent of police invited them for a meeting with the chief minister in Chandigarh.
As many as 36 farmer leaders -- who were taken in a bus to the Punjab Bhawan -- will be taking part in the meeting, a farmer leader said, news agency PTI reported.
Farmers had given an ultimatum to the government and said if the chief minister did not hold a meeting with them by Wednesday, they will move towards Chandigarh breaking barricades for holding an indefinite protest.
Chief Minister Mann on Tuesday had termed the farmers' protest "unwarranted and undesirable" and had asked the farmer unions to stop sloganeering and join hands with the state government to stop Punjab's depleting water table.
He had also said his doors were open for the farmers to hold talks but "hollow slogans" cannot break his resolve to check further depletion of the water table.
Farmers' indefinite protest in Chandigarh
Several farmer unions, affiliated to the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), had given a call for an indefinite protest in Chandigarh on the lines of the year-long agitation at the Delhi borders against the Centre's three farm laws which were repealed in response to the protests.
A heavy contingent of the police has been deployed at the Chandigarh-Mohali border.
What are farmers' demands?