A file photo of Punjab farmers during the protest at Shambhu Border. File
| Photo Credit: PTI

The Punjab Government informed the Supreme Court of India on Friday (February 28, 2025) that representatives of the Union Government and farmers’ leaders have met twice to discuss issues, including the guaranteed Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops, and would meet again on March 19, 2025.

Appearing before a Bench of Justices Surya Kant and N.K. Singh, Punjab Advocate General Gurminder Singh submitted that two Ministers of the State were also participating in the meetings.

Explained | Will a hike in MSP help farmers?

The platform for the meetings are being facilitated by an apex court-appointed committee led by former Punjab and Haryana High Court judge, Justice Nawab Singh. The Supreme Court’s consistent and urgent interventions prompted by the State of health farmers’ leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who was on a hunger strike, had cleared the path for talks.

In January, after nearly two months of his fast Mr. Dallewal had finally accepted medical aid and was shifted to a makeshift hospital. Mr. Dallewal had relented after meeting with a high-level delegation from the Union Government. He was holding his hunger strike at Kanauri border. More than 110 other farmers’ leaders, had also joined Mr. Dallewal in his hunger strike at the time.

Besides MSP, the protesting farmers had further sought a legal guarantee to protect their income and stabilise the agricultural market. Farmers have been camped at Shambhu and Kanauri borders of Punjab and Haryana ever since their march to Delhi was stopped in February 2024.

During the earlier hearings, before the Centre’s team met with the farmers, the Supreme Court had separately questioned the Union Government’s reluctance to come out with a statement that its “doors are open” to consider the “genuine grievances” of the protestors.

Lauding the work done by the Justice Singh committee, the apex court ordered the State Government to pay them an honorarium for every meeting. The Bench said it would hold on to the confidential status reports filed by the committee for now. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and the State of Haryana, had requested the court for copies of the reports.

Representational image only. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

The Punjab Government has formally rejected the Centre’s draft policy on agricultural marketing, asserting that it is an attempt to bring back the “contentious” provisions of the three farms laws repealed in 2021 after a year-long protest by farmers.

The State Government noted that since agriculture marketing is a State subject, the Government of India should not come up with any such policy and should leave it to the wisdom of the State to frame suitable policies on the subject as per their concerns and requirements.

The Centre had last year shared the draft of the National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing with the State Government for its views on it.

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had already said the Centre was trying to “bring back” the now-repealed farm laws, referring to the draft of the National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing.

The Aam Aadmi Party-led (AAP) Punjab Government had termed the draft policy as an attempt to reintroduce the three Central agricultural laws passed in 2020 “through backdoor.” After a year-long protest by farmers, the Centre had to repeal the laws.

Farmer outfits urge Punjab government to reject Centre’s draft policy on agricultural marketing

Punjab farmers have already rejected the draft policy with the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, SKM (non-political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha vociferously raising their voice against it.

In a communication to S.K. Singh, deputy agriculture marketing advisor and convener of the drafting committee, the Punjab Special Secretary (Agriculture) pointed out that the draft policy was totally silent on the issue of procurement of wheat and paddy at the Minimum Support Price (MSP), which was the most crucial one.

“At the time of the farmers’ agitation in 2020, one of the main issues was the apprehension of the farmers that the Government of India has the ultimate objective of doing away with procurement of wheat and paddy at MSP. Total absence of any reference to procurement at MSP in this draft policy has again given rise to the same apprehensions in the minds of the farmers of the State. This is the most crucial issue for the State of Punjab,” said the letter.

The State Government further noted that the draft policy places significant emphasis on promoting private markets.

“The broad spirit of the policy is to promote private markets and to significantly dilute the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Markets and to eventually make them irrelevant. In Punjab, on an average an area of 115 sqkm is served by an APMC market. This is the highest density of APMC Markets amongst all the States in the country.

“So, there is no need for any new private markets. As of now, farmers are able to sell their produce in the APMC markets in a totally transparent manner and under a well-established regulatory regime which ensures that the interests of the farmers are safeguarded. With the coming in of private markets, the APMC markets will be destroyed. Thereafter the farmers will be at the mercy of the owners of the private markets,” it said.

The State Government also objected to the proposal of capping the market fee at 2% for non-perishable commodities and 1% for perishable commodities.

“In Punjab, market fees and Rural Development Fund (RDF) have been utilised to establish a network of roads connecting each village to the mandi so that farmers are able to bring their produce to the mandis… With the reduction in these fees, it will not be possible to maintain the mandi yards and the rural roads network. Under such circumstances it will be difficult for farmers to bring their produce to the mandi yards to market them to get remunerative prices,” it said.

The State Government further pointed out that contract farming has been a significant concern for farmers. “They raised this issue very prominently during the farm law agitation. The draft policy encourages the promotion of contract farming,” it said.

“The proposal to declare silos as deemed market yards has been strongly opposed by farmers, who fear that Multinational Corporations (MNCs) will step into the shoes of Food Corporation of India (FCI) and exploit them. They also apprehend that the ultimate objective is for FCI to get out of purchasing wheat and paddy at MSP. This will be greatly detrimental to the marketing of the two major crops of the State,” it pointed out.

The State Government also objected to the capping of commission charges in the draft policy at 4% ad valorem on perishable and 2% on non-perishable commodities.

“The Government of Punjab totally disagrees with this draft policy on agricultural marketing. It feels that this draft policy is an attempt to bring back the contentious provisions of the three farms laws repealed in 2021 by the Centre after a year-long protest by the farmers,” said the letter.

Chandigarh:

Farmers blocked roads at many places across the state on Monday as part of their Punjab bandh call, hamstringing the commuter traffic.

A call for a shutdown was given last week by Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha over the Centre not accepting the demands of protesting farmers.

The bandh will be observed from 7 am to 4 pm. Farmers observed a sit-in at Dhareri Jattan Toll Plaza which affected vehicular movement on the Patiala-Chandigarh National Highway.

At Amritsar’s Golden Gate, farmers started to assemble near the city’s entry point while in Bathinda’s Rampura Phul, they blocked roads.

Farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher on Sunday said though there will be a complete bandh, emergency services will be allowed to operate.

“The bandh will be observed from 7 am to 4 pm. However, emergency services will remain operational. Anyone travelling to the airport to catch a flight or anyone going to attend a job interview, or anyone needs to attend a wedding… all these things have been kept out of our bandh call,” he said.

Meanwhile, 70-year-old farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal’s hunger strike entered its 35th day on Monday.

Mr Dallewal has so far refused medical treatment.

Hundreds of farmers have been protesting at the Punjab-Haryana border demanding a legal guarantee of a minimum support price (MSP) for crops.

Mr Dallewal had earlier said he would not break his fast until the government agreed to the farmers’ demands.

The top court has given the Punjab government time till December 31 to persuade Mr Dallewal to shift to a hospital, granting the state the liberty to seek logistical support from the Centre, if necessary.

Farmers, under the banner of SKM (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, have been camping at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13, after their march to Delhi was stopped by security forces.

A “jatha” (group) of 101 farmers attempted to march to Delhi on foot three times between December 6 and 14 but were stopped by security personnel from Haryana.

Besides the MSP, farmers are also demanding a debt waiver, pension, no hike in electricity tariffs, withdrawal of police cases, and “justice” for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence. 

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)