A group of farmers ended their protest at the Chandigarh-Mohali border on Wednesday after Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann accepted most of their demands, PTI reported.
The representatives of the protest were invited by the Mohali deputy commissioner and senior superintendent of police to meet the chief minister in Chandigarh, following which the announcement was made.
Amongst the demands met include a bonus on wheat production due to poor yield, release of pending payments for sugarcane production and an assurance on minimum support price for maize, moong and basmati rice.
During the meeting, Mann told the farmer leaders that the state government has already issued a notification to procure the entire moong crop at a minimum support price of Rs 7,275 per quintal, PTI reported, citing a statement from Mann’s office.
Mann also said that he will meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah to discuss the matter of minimum support price on basmati rice and a bonus for wheat farmers who have suffered losses in the yield, according to The Indian Express.
Punjab rural development and panchayats minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, who had arrived at the protest site to announce the acceptance of demands, said farmers would not have to do a sit-in anymore.
“Each demand will be met,” Dhaliwal said, according to The Indian Express. “We [govenrment and farmer leaders] had a three-hour-long meeting. It was not a meeting between farmers and the government but between the brethren.”
Hundreds of Punjab farmers had been protesting against the Aam Aadmi Party-led state government since Tuesday.
On Tuesday, the farmers were stopped by the Mohali Police en route to Chandigarh to submit their demands to Mann.
The farmers broke through some barricades set up at YPS Chowk in Mohali and and marched towards the city’s border with Chandigarh. They were stopped by the police near Gita Bhawan, The Indian Express reported.
The farmers then spent the night at the Chandigarh-Mohali Road and are holding a sit-in protst there. They are carrying food supplies, beds, fans, coolers, utensils and cooking gas cylinders, PTI reported. A heavy police contingent has been deployed at the border. The police have diverted traffic on the Chandigarh-Mohali Road near the YPS Chowk.
Earlier, the Aam Aadmi Party’s Punjab unit chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang said that the state government is committed to the welfare of farmers and is willing to address their genuine demands, according to The Indian Express.
“If the farmer bodies want to hold a dialogue for the farming sector, the doors of the state government are always open,” he said
On Wednesday, Mann had described the protests as unwarranted, PTI reported. He also called upon the farmer unions to join the state’s efforts to check depleting levels of groundwater in Punjab.
“They have a democratic right to hold a dharna [protest] but they should tell their issues,” said Mann.
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