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Agencies

Ahead of crucial meet with farmers, govt agrees on more assurance over MSP
05-December-2020

Farm leaders and the government are set to hold talks again today. This will be their fifth round of talks to end the deadlock over the new farm laws. Ahead of the crucial meeting with protesting farmer organisations, Union ministers, including Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to deliberate over proposals likely to be made to the agitating groups, sources said on Saturday. Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal were also present in the meeting with the prime minister, they said. According to sources, the government has worked out possible solutions to the provisions on which farm leaders have raised objections. It hopes to break the deadlock on Saturday so that the farmers' protest ends at the earliest.

In the previous meeting on Thursday, Tomar had assured 40 farmer union leaders that the government is open to considering ways to strengthen APMC mandis, create a level-playing field with proposed private markets, and provide a provision for approaching higher courts for dispute resolution, while asserting that procurement at minimum support price (MSP) will continue.