Talks between farmer leaders, Centre remain inconclusive; next meeting on May 4
Chandigarh, Mar 19 (PTI): A fresh round of meeting between farmer leaders and a central delegation to discuss the formers' various demands remained inconclusive on Wednesday, even as the Union ministers attending the talks called the farmers' interests paramount.
During the meeting that lasted for more than three hours, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the talks would continue and the next meeting will be held on May 4.
"The meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere. The discussions took place in a positive and constructive manner. The talks will continue. The next meeting will take place on May 4," Chouhan said after the meeting.
However, he did not take any questions from the media.
The discussions revolved around the main demand for a law guaranteeing minimum support price (MSP) for crops.
The farmer leaders insisted that there would be no problem in implementing a law guaranteeing MSP (for crops).
They also raised the issue of some media reports suggesting that the US government was pressuring the government of India to remove import duty on agricultural products.
Besides Chouhan, Consumer Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi and Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal were also present at the meeting held at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Public Administration in Sector 26 here.
Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema, Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian and Food and Civil Supplies minister Lal Chand Kataruchak were also part of the meeting.
It was the seventh round of talks between the two sides since February last year.
Addressing the farmers, Chouhan reiterated the government's commitment to their welfare and recalled how it continued to make regular policy interventions to address the issues being faced by farmers across the country.
An official release said that various legal, economic and other dimensions of the farmers' demands were explored and highlighted during the meeting.
Based on the discussions, the government has decided to hold stakeholder consultations with farmer organisations across the country, as well as with the states and Union Territories, traders, exporters and the food processing industry, the statement said.
It has been decided to continue the talks in a positive spirit after the stakeholder consultations, it added.
The ministers assured the farmers that the government will continue to pay a patient ear to their concerns and those of the other stakeholders and act in the interest of the farmers.
"The interest of the farmers is paramount," the ministers assured the farmer leaders.
They also appealed to the farmer community to adopt the path of dialogue rather than protest, noting that solutions will emerge only from dialogues and discussions.
Speaking to the media, Punjab Finance Minister Cheema said the central ministers stressed that there was a need to study the data shared by the farmers in support of their demand for an MSP guarantee law.
"As in the last meeting, the farmers shared data in support of their demand for legal guarantee of MSP. The central ministers said there is a need for more study on this. As the law will be framed for the whole country, it is important to listen to the views of all the stakeholders.
"An official of the government of India has been assigned for this. In the coming time, views of all the stakeholders -- consumers, traders or organisations -- will be heard," Cheema said.
Farmer leader Abhimanyu Kohar said Chouhan told them that the information shared by the farmers were discussed within the agriculture ministry.
The central delegation informed the farmers that some issues or problems may come up in the MSP guarantee law, while the farmer leaders made it clear that there would be no obstacles in the implementation of the same, Kohar said.
"They said some issues may come up and for a detailed discussion on those issues, the government needs some time. The government also said it wants to hold an inter-ministerial discussion. They will again sit with us after that," Kohar added.
The farmer leaders also asked the central delegation not to succumb to any pressure from the US for reducing import duty on agricultural items.
"We made it clear that if import duty on agricultural products was removed, it will be a death warrant for the farmers," Kohar said.
"It is the responsibility of the government of India to protect the interests of the farmers," he added.
Farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said, "They (the government) said if an MSP guarantee law is framed, some problems may come up. But we don't feel so. The government also said it wants to continue the talks."
Ahead of the talks, Pandher said a 28-member delegation of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha will take part in the meeting.
The two farmer bodies are spearheading the farmers' stir.
Stating that the farmers expected the government to resolve their issues, Pandher said, "We have come here with a positive mind. Some decisions should come out after the meeting. We expect that the deadlock over a law guaranteeing MSP will end and the talks will move forward."
Earlier, veteran farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal reached the meeting venue in an ambulance.
Dallewal, who has been on an indefinite fast since November 26 last year and is on medical aid, said they were expecting a response from the Centre on the data presented by the farmers to support their demands.
The last meeting between the farmers and the central delegation was held here on February 22, which was attended by Chouhan, Joshi, and Goyal.
A meeting between a central team led by Joshi and farmers' representatives was held here on February 14 as well.
Before that, four rounds of talks took place between central ministers and protesting farmers in February 2024, but they remained inconclusive.
The protesting farmers have been camping at Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13 last year, after security forces did not allow them to march to Delhi to press their demands.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Israeli strikes across Gaza hit multiple homes, killing at least 85 Palestinians
Deir al-Balah, Mar 20 (AP): Israeli strikes killed at least 85 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip overnight and into Thursday, according to local health officials. Hours later, Hamas fired three rockets at Israel without causing casualties, in the first such attack since Israel ended their ceasefire with a surprise bombardment of Gaza on Tuesday.
The Israeli military ordered people to evacuate an area in central Gaza near Khan Younis, saying it would operate there in response to rocket fire from Hamas.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military restored a blockade on northern Gaza, including Gaza City, that it had maintained for most of the war. It warned residents against using the main highway to enter or leave the north and said only passage to the south would be allowed on the coastal road.
It also announced an additional ground operation in northern Gaza near the already largely destroyed town of Beit Lahiya, where strikes have killed dozens over the past 24 hours.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians returned to what remains of their homes in the north after a ceasefire took hold in January. Israel resumed heavy strikes across Gaza on Tuesday, shattering the truce that had facilitated the release of more than two dozen hostages.
Israel blamed the renewed fighting on Hamas because the fighter group rejected a new proposal that departed from their signed agreement. The Trump administration, which took credit for helping to broker the ceasefire, has voiced full support for Israel.
More than 400 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday alone, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
The military said three rockets were fired out of Gaza on Thursday, with one intercepted and two falling in open areas. Hamas claimed the attack and said it had targeted Tel Aviv.
Air raid sirens have sounded in central Jerusalem and other parts of Israel after a missile launch from Yemen, the Israeli army announced.
The launch came hours after Israel said it intercepted another missile launched by Yemen's Houthi rebel group.
The Iranian-backed Houthis resumed attacks on Israel this week following the collapse of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
The military said it intercepted two missiles launched several hours apart by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels. Both were intercepted before reaching Israeli airspace, the military said.
Air raid sirens rang out overnight and exploding interceptors were heard in Jerusalem. No injuries were reported. It was the third such attack since the United States began a new campaign of airstrikes against the rebels earlier this week.
One of the strikes on Gaza early Thursday hit the Abu Daqa family's home in Abasan al-Kabira, a village just outside of Khan Younis near the border with Israel. It was inside an area the Israeli military ordered evacuated earlier this week, encompassing most of eastern Gaza.
The strike killed at least 16 people, mostly women and children, according to the nearby European Hospital, which received the dead. Those killed included a father and his seven children, as well as the parents and brother of a month-old baby who survived along with her grandparents.
“Another tough night,” said Hani Awad, who was helping rescuers search for more survivors in the rubble. “The house collapsed over the people's heads.”
Israel's military said Thursday that it killed the head of Hamas' internal security apparatus in an airstrike in Gaza, where Israel says it has struck dozens of fighter group targets.
Israeli ground troops advance
On Wednesday, Israeli ground troops advanced in Gaza for the first time since the ceasefire took hold in January, seizing part of a corridor separating the northern third of the territory from the south. The announcement about passage to the south indicated troops will soon retake full control over what is known as the Netzarim corridor, stretching from the border to the Mediterranean Sea.
Israel, which has also cut off the supply of food, fuel and humanitarian aid to Gaza's roughly 2 million Palestinians, has vowed to intensify its operations until Hamas releases the 59 hostages it holds — 35 of whom are believed dead — and gives up control of the territory.
Hamas has said it will only release the remaining hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, as called for in the ceasefire agreement they reached in January after more than a year of mediation by the United States, Egypt and Qatar.
Hamas, which does not accept Israel's existence, says it is willing to hand over power to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority or a committee of political independents but will not lay down its arms until Israel ends its decades-long occupation of lands the Palestinians want for a future state.
A bloody night' for hard-hit northern town
Gaza's Health Ministry said the overnight strikes killed at least 85 people, mostly women and children. Zaher al-Waheidi, the official in charge of records for the ministry, said a total of 592 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since Tuesday.
The Indonesian Hospital said it received 19 bodies after strikes in Beit Lahiya, near the border.
“It was a bloody night for the people of Beit Lahiya,” said Fares Awad, head of the Health Ministry's emergency service in northern Gaza, adding that rescuers were still searching the rubble from homes that were hit. “The situation is catastrophic.”
Beit Lahiya was heavily destroyed and largely depopulated during the first phase of the war before January's ceasefire. On Wednesday, an Israeli strike on a gathering of mourners killed 17 people there, according to health officials.
No end in sight to the 17-month war
US President Donald Trump's administration reiterated its support for Israel on Thursday.
“The president made it very clear to Hamas that if they did not release all of the hostages there would be all hell to pay,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
Hundreds of Israelis gathered outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem on Thursday to protest his handling of the hostage crisis and his plan to fire the country's head of internal security. Police used a water canon to disperse the crowd after protesters tried to break through police barricades.
A mass march and demonstration Wednesday outside the Israeli parliament continued into the late evening hours and ended with several arrests.
The war began when Hamas-led group stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage.
Most of the hostages have been freed in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israeli forces have rescued eight living hostages and recovered the bodies of dozens more.
Israel's retaliatory offensive, among the deadliest and most destructive in recent history, has killed more than 49,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It does not say how many were fighters, but says more than half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 Hamas members, without providing evidence.
The war at its height displaced around 90 per cent of Gaza's population and has caused vast destruction across the territory.
