Representative photo of farmer leaders during press conference in Chandigarh
Agriculture union leaders and Karnal district administration are set to hold another round of talks today, with both sides hoping for an early resolution of the issues after a marathon four-hour long meeting on Friday. On August 28, farmers started a sit-in outside the district headquarters in Karnal on Tuesday against the police lathi charge. Their main demands centered around the suspension of the then SDM Ayush Sinha, who was allegedly asking policemen to “break heads” of farmers. They cross the line.
He had also claimed that a farmer died after the August 28 violence, a charge denied by the administration.
As the farmers’ protest outside the Karnal district headquarters entered the fourth day on Friday, both the sides said that the meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere.
“We discussed for four hours. Some positives have come out and there will be another meeting on Saturday,” Karnal Deputy Commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav said over phone.
Asked whether the administration agreed to any of the demands of the farmers, he said, “It would not be right to comment anything more at this stage.” Let there be another scheduled meeting first.”
However, the DC said that the talks were positive.
“Yes, there has been a positive development,” he said while answering another question. Additional Chief Secretary Devendra Singh, Haryana BKU chief Gurnam Singh Chaduni and farmer leader Suresh Koth were present in the meeting.
Koth told reporters that the meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere.
“The meeting was positive. But there are some things that we will take up in Saturday’s meeting. We are hopeful that the issues will be resolved soon,” Koth said.
However, he did not give details of what happened during the meeting.
“Since a follow-up meeting is scheduled for Saturday, let us wait for that first,” he said.
“We will also talk to other leaders of the United Kisan Morcha and apprise them of the details of today’s meeting,” Chaduni said.
When asked whether the meeting can be termed as positive, Chaduni replied in the affirmative. Some senior leaders of the United Kisan Morcha are expected to attend Saturday’s meeting.
Meanwhile, the Haryana government has resumed mobile internet services in the district.
On Thursday, Home Minister Anil Vij had said the government was ready to investigate last month’s clashes between farmers and the police, but warned that farmers could also face action if found guilty.
Vij offered a “fair” probe into the “entire Karnal episode” as farmers continued their protest outside the Karnal district headquarters demanding action on the August 28 lathi-charge.
Earlier, talks between district officials and farmers had failed, following which the protesters said they would continue to sit at the district headquarters “indefinitely”.
(with inputs from PTI)
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