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Major outreach to striking farmers, PM senior Ministers invite them for talks

New Delhi, (the states. news) In a major outreach by the central government, PM Narendra Modi and several of his senior cabinet colleagues on Friday hailed the agriculture reforms and invited striking farmers for talks assuring that the farm laws would benefit them and not cause any harm.

PM Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Environment and Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar, in separate statements, invited the striking farmers for talks even as the farmers remained stubborn demanding nothing less than the repeal of the three farm laws.

Earlier in the afternoon the Prime Minister offered to hold talks with the striking farmers ‘’on all issues with an open mind’’. He also released Rs 18000 crore to more than 9 crore beneficiary farmer families under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme. The amount was transferred directly into the bank accounts of farmer families through video conferencing with the push of a button.

‘’Today, more than Rs 18,000 crore have been directly deposited in the accounts of farmers, no middlemen, no commissions…Due to our commitment towards farmers, we are ready for discussions on all their issues with an open mind…Our government is ready to talk to those opposing us as long as the discussion is based on facts,’’ the Prime Minister said.

Home Minister Amit Shah, at a rally, hailed the central government’s farm policies and said the three farm laws are in favour of farmers. Nobody could remove the MSP system or snatch farmers’ land from them. ‘’The government is ready to hold talks with farmers’ unions with an open heart’’

He accused the Opposition with misleading farmers regarding MSP and said the Prime Minister is a well-wisher of the farmers. ‘’I want to make it clear that the MSP system will remain,’’ he said and added that farmers had expressed faith in agricultural reforms done by the Modi government with full enthusiasm.

“For the last 6 years, the Modi government has taken every decision keeping the poor, farmers and the under privileged in mind. This has brought positive changes in their lives. PM-KISAN is also one such unprecedented scheme whereby Modi ji sends Rs 6000 to the accounts of farmers every year,” he said.



Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, while appealing to striking farmers to talk with the government, said that even if farmers wanted to bring specialists and experts with them for the talks, the government would not have any objection.

He urged the farmers to let the laws be implemented for a couple of years and if after that if they thought these laws were not favouring them, the government could make required amendments. ‘’I’m sure as I know our PM’s intention, we’ll make all the required amendments in it,’’ he added. (uni) (media saheb.com)