Protest against agriculture law in India: Minister meets farmers today

Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Tomar has invited farmer unions for discussion at 3 pm today (Tuesday) citing cold and coronavirus, as hundreds of farmers started trickling in from Punjab to join the protesters at two borders of Delhi.

The ongoing protests by thousands of farmers against the Centre's new farm laws entered the fifth day on Monday, with the protestors threatening to block all five entry points to the national capital.

Rejecting the Centre's offer to hold talks once they move to the Burari ground, the farmers said they will not accept any conditional dialogue and have called a meeting to discuss their next course of action later in the day.

Farmers, who had reached Nirankarai Samagam Ground in Burari on Saturday, continued their protest there.

Traffic continued to be disrupted in the city due to the protests. Taking to Twitter, the Delhi Traffic Police on Monday alerted commuters to take an alternate route since Singhu and Tikri borders continued to remain closed.

A meeting of over 30 farmer groups was held to discuss Amit Shah's offer for talks before the scheduled date of December 3 once they move to Burari in the city, but the thousands of protesters had refused to budge and spent another night in the cold at the Singhu and Tikri border points. Their representatives had said that Amit Shah's condition that they shift the protest is not acceptable and claimed Burari ground is an "open jail".

Over the last five days, thousands of farmers, braving water cannons, tear gas and barricades of the Haryana police, have reached the borders of Delhi. While some of them have managed to enter the city, the rest are sitting at the border areas, saying they are ready to do what it takes to see the end of the three farm laws passed by parliament earlier this year.