LIVE Farmers protest: Hope there will be a decision as we speak, say farm leaders

Farmers on the way to Tikri border during a tractor rally as part of their ongoing protest against the farm laws. Photo: PTI

Farmers’ protest LIVE updates Day 44: The eighth round of talks between protesting farmer unions and the government is scheduled to be held today as both sides look for a resolution to the over one-month-long deadlock on the issue of the three new farm laws.

Both sides have stuck to their respective positions, with agitating farmers taking out tractor rallies on Thursday to press their demand for rollback of the laws, and the Centre asserting it is ready to consider any proposal other than their repeal.

The latest round of talks to be held at Vigyan Bhavan at 2 pm on Friday is crucial as the previous meeting on January 4 remained inconclusive. There was some breakthrough in the sixth round of talks on December 30 when the government conceded to two demands of the agitating farmers pertaining to power subsidy and stubble burning. The previous rounds of talks had failed to make any headway.

Thursday’s tractor rallies were taken out from protest sites near the Singhu, Tikri and the Ghazipur borders and also from Haryana’s Rewasan as the unions asserted they would not accept the Centre’s offer of amendments to the farm laws.

According to them, these marches were a “rehearsal” for their proposed January 26 “Kisan Parade” to the national capital from different parts of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

Owing to the farmers’ protest since late November last year, several routes connecting Delhi with its neighbouring states have been closed for traffic movement.