Farmers' representatives accuses Centre of using NIA against their supporters

The ninth round of talks on Friday between the central government and farmer unions over the farm laws headed nowhere as the two sides could not reach common ground on the issues of repeal of the laws and the Minimum Support Price. The next meeting will take place on January 19 at 12 pm. This was the first meeting after the Supreme Court appointed a committee to resolve the deadlock over farm laws. Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Railways, Commerce and Food Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for Commerce Som Parkash, who is an MP from Punjab, held talks with the representatives of around 40 farmer unions for over four hours. Tomar had on Thursday confirmed the talks saying it will be done with ‘an open mind’. Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu and party workers were detained while trying to march towards Raj Bhavan in Lucknow during a protest against the new farm laws. The government on Friday asked protesting farmers to form an informal group to prepare a concrete proposal about their objections and suggestions on the three farm laws for further discussion at their next meeting on January 19 to end the long-running protest at various Delhi borders, but unions stuck to their main demand of a complete repeal of the three Acts. As nearly five hours of talks between 41 unions and three central ministers did not reach a decisive stage in the ninth round of talks at Vigyan Bhawan here, the two sides decided to meet again the next Tuesday.