As Farmers Plan To Scale Up Protests, Centre To Make An Appeal: Sources

The government will appeal to farmers to call off the unprecedented protests against the new farm laws, explaining why it is diluting the laws, sources said.  The protest - the biggest by farmers in years - has entered the fifteenth day. The government will also explain why it is bringing amendments to the controversial laws which the farmers want repealed, sources said.

Farmer groups on Wednesday turned down the centre's written offer of amendments in farm laws, and announced a series of plans to escalate their protest.

In the proposal sent to 13 agitating farmer unions, the centre had promised a written assurance for minimum support prices, allowing farmers to go to court to resolve disputes instead of a sub-divisional magistrate and scrapping of the Electricity Amendment bill, which they opposed. The government also offered to make amendments in the laws to address the concerns of farmers in various areas. To allay fears that big corporates will take over farmlands, the government said it can be clarified that no buyer can take loans against farmland nor any such condition will be made to farmers.

Farmers called for the closure of the Delhi-Jaipur Highway, boycott of Reliance malls and capture of toll plazas. By December 14, there will be a full-scale protest across the country, they said.

Thousands of farmers, who have braved water cannons, tear gas and police barricades, began their protest over two weeks ago against the farm laws, aimed at doing away with middlemen and allowing them to sell produce anywhere in the country. Farmers say the laws will deprive them of the minimum prices fixed by the government and leave them at the mercy of corporates.

At least five deaths have been reported since the protests began.