Govt-farmers talks today; Tomar says hopeful of positive outcome

New Delhi: The government's ninth round of negotiations with protesting farmer unions will take place as scheduled on Friday and the Centre is hopeful of positive discussions, Agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar said on Thursday.

"The government is ready to hold talks with farmers' leaders with an open mind," Tomar told reporters here.

Clearing the confusion over the fate of the ninth round of talks, which was the only outcome in the last meeting on January 8, in the wake of the Supreme Court on January 11 appointing a four-member panel to resolve the impasse and a key member of the proposed committee subsequently recusing himself, Tomar said the talks between the government and the union representatives will take place as scheduled for 12 pm on January 15.

The farmer unions have been maintaining that they were ready to attend the scheduled talks with the government, even as they have said they do not want to appear before the court-appointed panel and have also questioned its composition.

Earlier in the day, Bhartiya Kisan Union president Bhupinder Singh Mann said he is recusing himself from the four-member committee.

Farmer unions and Opposition parties had called it a "pro-government" panel, insisting that its members have been in favour of the three laws in the past.

Mann said he is thankful to the Apex Court for nominating him on the panel but would give up any position to prevent farmers' interests from being compromised.

"As a farmer myself and a union leader, in view of the prevailing sentiments and apprehensions amongst the farm unions and the public in general, I am ready to sacrifice any position offered or given to me so as to not compromise the interests of Punjab and farmers of the country," he said in a statement.

"I am recusing myself from the committee and I will always stand with my farmers and Punjab," Mann added.

The Supreme Court-appointed panel on farm laws is likely to hold its first meeting on January 19 at Pusa campus here, one of its members Anil Ghanwat said on Thursday and asserted the committee will have no "ego or prestige issue" if it has to go to farmers' protest sites to talk to them.