Meeting between Punjab ministers, farmers' union inconclusive; protesters to continue stir

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 19

A meeting between a three-member Punjab Cabinet ministerial panel and the leadership of the state’s largest farmer union BKU Ekta-Ugrahan remained inconclusive on Monday as the protesters said they would continue with their agitation.

At the meeting, the union leaders also demanded that the Montek Singh Ahluwalia report, submitted in August, be disregarded.

Ministers Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria arrived at Punjab Bhavan for the meeting immediately after the obituary references got over in Vidhan Sabha. The aim of the meeting was to convince the farmers to scale down their agitation. 

Union president Joginder Singh Ugrahan said their protests would continue till the farmers felt satisfied with action taken by the government to counter the Centre’s farm laws.

“We also want the Congress government to withdraw the amendments made by the state government in 2017 to the APMC Act,” he said. Earlier, the protesters had threatened to gherao Vidhan Sabha.