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Farmers reject Centre�s talk offer

By The Assam Tribune

NEW DELHI/CHANDIGARH, Nov 29 - Rejecting the Centre�s offer to hold talks once they move to the Burari ground, the farmers who are protesting at Delhi�s borders for four days against the new farm laws on Sunday said they will not accept any conditional dialogue and threatened to block all five entry points to the national capital.

The Home Ministry too assured the farmers� organisations that a high-level team of Union Ministers will talk to them once the protesters move to the designated site.

A meeting of over 30 farmer groups was held to discuss Union Minister Amit Shah�s offer for talks before the scheduled date of December 3 once they move to Burari in the city, but the thousands of protesters refused to budge and prepared for spending another night in the cold at the Singhu and Tikri border points. Their representatives said Shah�s condition that they shift the protest is not acceptable and claimed Burari ground is an �open jail�.

Opposition parties too pressed the government to initiate an unconditional dialogue with the farmers.

�The condition laid down by Home Minister Amit Shah is not acceptable to us. We will not hold any conditional talks. We reject the government�s offer. The blockade will not end. We will block all five entry point to Delhi,� Surjeet S Phul, Bhartiya Kisan Union's Punjab president, told reporters.

�The condition put for talks is an insult to farmers. We will never go to Burari. It is not a park but an open jail,� he added.

Gurnam Singh Chadhoni, Haryana unit president for the Bhartiya Kisan Union, said they were ready to talk �but will not accept any condition now�.

Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla in a letter to 32 farmers organisations sent on Saturday cited the cold conditions and the COVID-19 outbreak and said the farmers should move to the Burari ground where adequate facilities have been made for them. � PTI

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