The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) said on Friday that the third round of talks with the Karnal district administration on the August 28 police action against farmers concluded with a “positive” note and hinted that the ongoing impasse could end on Saturday.
The SKM is a platform of agricultural unions that has been leading protests against agricultural laws since November last year.
Neither the farmers ’leaders nor government representatives revealed what was discussed at the meeting, which lasted more than four hours.
Farmers, however, said most of their issues related to last month’s police clashes were resolved and there were only two or three left to discuss at Saturday’s next round of meetings.
“The meeting was very positive and we hope this issue can be resolved at the next meeting at 9am on Saturday,” said farmers leader Gurnam Singh Charuni.
Haryana’s additional chief secretary, Devender Singh, who chaired the meeting, also said talks with farmers were positive and there was another meeting scheduled for the weekend.
The development comes at a time when farmers have been organizing an indefinite protest at the main entrance of the Karnal mini-secretariat since September 7 against last month’s police action.
Several protesters received a load of lathic as they marched towards Karnal to protest against a meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on 28 August. About ten farmers were injured in the incident.
Shortly afterwards, a video appeared in which IAS officer Ayush Sinha allegedly instructed police to “break the heads” of growers if they breached the security cordon at the BJP meeting.
Among other issues, farmers have requested the suspension and registration of an FIR against Sinha, which was later moved out of Karnal and sent as additional secretary to the Department of Citizen Resources Information (CRID).
At Friday’s meeting, the government assured to initiate an action against the IAS officer, according to people familiar with the development.
Farmers also demanded compensation ₹25 lakh and a government job for relatives of farmer Sushil Kajal, who claimed he died due to police action and financial assistance from ₹2 lakh each to injured farmers, plus free treatment at government hospitals.
Charuni said farmers will hold a discussion with other senior SKM leaders Friday night and all issues are likely to be cleared up during Saturday’s meeting.
After failing two meetings with protesters, the state government had sent Singh on Friday to talk to a 13-member delegation of peasants led by Charuni.
The SKM had convened a meeting of all senior leaders in Karnal on September 11 to announce a “big decision” if their demands were not met.
“As the talks were positive, the decision on the SKM meeting for a new action will be taken on Saturday morning,” Union spokesman Bharatiya Kisan (Charuni) Rakesh Bains said.