Farm leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal agrees to take medical aid as Centre agrees to hold talks

Farm leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who has been on a hunger strike since November 26, agreed to take medical aid on Saturday after the Union government stated it would hold talks with the protesting farmers on February 14, reported PTI.

On Saturday night, the 70-year-old Dallewal was given an intravenous drip. He stated, however, that he would not end his hunger strike till a legal guarantee on the minimum support price was given.

Dallewal, chief of the farm group Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political), has been on an indefinite fast at Khanauri, located on the Punjab-Haryana border.

The strike is part of a wider campaign to press the Union government to accept farmers’ demand for legally guaranteed minimum support prices. The minimum support price is the rate at which the government procures crops from farmers.

Besides a legal guarantee for minimum support prices, the farmers have also been demanding the implementation of the MS Swaminathan Commission’s wider recommendations for farming in India, pensions for farmers and farm labourers, a farm debt waiver, the reinstatement of the 2013 Land Acquisition Act and justice for victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence.

The farmers have alleged that the Union government has not taken steps to address their demands, claiming that no talks have been held since February.

Since then, they have been camping at…

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