Amid ongoing protests by farmers against the new farm laws, Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Monday invited leaders of the farmer unions for talks on December 1.
The meeting will be held at 3 pm at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi, the minister said.
"On November 13 we decided to conduct next round of talks on December 3 but Farmers continued their protest and with the Covid situation and with winters we decided that we needed to talk before December 3 and resolve the situation. That is why on December 1 at 3 pm in Vigyan Bhawan all Kisan Unions are invited who were present in the first round of meeting," Tomar told ANI here.
Tomar said that farmers were under some misunderstanding regarding the newly enacted farm laws and the government is committed to have talks with the kisan unions who were present in first round of meeting with the government.
"Under Modiji's leadership, in the last six years, for farmer income increase many historic work was done. When the new farm amendment laws came, farmers had some myths in their mind. We conducted two sessions of meeting with Kisan Unions, the first on October 14 at at the Secretary level and on November 13, I was there with Piyush Goyal and Som Prakash and spoke to Kisan Unions," Tomar added.
The farmers had rejected the Centre's 'conditional' offer to hold talks, saying that they will not accept any conditional dialogue and threatened to block entry points to the national capital.
Farmers from different states have gathered at north Delhi's Burari ground while others are camping at the borders to the national capital.
The agriculture minister also requested the farmers to leave the agitation and come for the talks. -- Sahil Pandey/ANI