Centre ready to talk to farmers at any time: Agriculture Minister Tomar

Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Thursday reiterated that the central government is ready to talk to protesting farmers at any time. While speaking to the media here, Tomar said that the farmer unions, which have been protesting against the farm laws for nearly three months, have not given their feedback on the centre's proposal of putting the farm laws on hold for 1.5 years.

"We have held 12 rounds of talks with the farmers. We are ready to talk to farmers anytime. We can't implement the farm laws as the matter is with Supreme Court. The Supreme Court constituted committee is yet to submit its feedback," Tomar said.

"We have given a proposal to farmers of making several amendments in farm laws and putting the laws on hold for 1.5 years. They did not respond to the proposal. We are ready for talks whenever farmers bring their views on the government's proposal," he added.

This comes as farmer leader Rakesh Tikait had on Tuesday announced plans for marching to the Parliament with 40 lakh tractors in order to intensify pressure on the central government to withdraw the three farm laws.

Since November 26 last year, farmers have been protesting on the different borders of the national capital, against the three newly enacted farm laws: Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and farm Services Act 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.