Union Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda on Tuesday said a law guaranteeing minimum support price (MSP) on crops cannot be brought in a hurry without consulting all stakeholders and urged the protesting farmer groups to have a structured discussion with the government on the issue.
A team of three Union ministers will hold talks on Monday with a delegation of farmer leaders, who are planning to march towards Delhi to press for their demands.
Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha proceedings were adjourned for the day amid protests by the Opposition in both the Houses demanding removal of Ajay Mishra as Union minister and withdrawal of the suspension of MPs.
Police on Friday used tear gas to disperse Haryana farmers heading towards Khanauri on Punjab's border with the state where farmers, mostly from Punjab, have been camping since last week after their 'Delhi Chalo' march was halted by security forces.
'It is not his doing, but Rahul Gandhi is forced by circumstances.' 'In taking political decisions, everything has to get his clearance.'
Campaigning for May 13 elections in 96 Lok Sabha constituencies across 10 states and Union territories including all seats in Andhra Pradesh, where assembly elections are also being held concurrently, and Telangana concluded on Saturday evening.
He requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make an announcement that the farm loans would be waived, while a mechanism for the same could be worked out later.
The Cabinet Committee on Parliament Affairs has recommended that the winter session of the Parliament be held from November 29 to December 23, sources said on Monday.
BJP heavyweights Smriti Irani, Arjun Munda, Ajay Mishra Teni and Kailash Chaudhary were among the 13 Union ministers who tasted defeat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, as stunning losses in three Hindi heartland states forced the BJP to rely on allies to form the government.
Farmer leaders participating in the 'Delhi Chalo' agitation on Friday said the cremation of Shubhkaran Singh, who died amid clashes between Haryana Police and Punjab farmers, will not take place till the Punjab government registers a case against those responsible it.
The Haryana Police on Wednesday fired tear gas shells to disperse farmers from Punjab at Shambhu and Khanauri border points as they tried to move towards barricades stalling their protest march to Delhi.
Union Agriculture and Farmer Welfare Minister Munda, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai represented the Centre at the meeting over the farmer unions' various demands, including a law guaranteeing a minimum support price (MSP) for crops. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann also joined the meeting at the Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration in Sector 26. The meeting started at around 8:45 pm on Thursday and lasted for around five hours.
The Khalistan sympathiser, who is yet to be nabbed, escaped the police's net in Jalandhar district on March 18, switching vehicles and changing his appearance.
The police officials, who have been working to establish the identity of the Twitter handle @balajikijaiin operating under the name 'Hanuman Bhakt,' did not disclose the businessman's name.
A voter turnout of over 40 per cent was recorded till 1 pm on Monday in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections in 96 constituencies spread over 10 states and Union Territories amid incidents of violence in Andhra Pradesh and reports of poll boycott in some villages of Uttar Pradesh.
Creating a record, the CJI headed apex court collegium meetings led to appointment of 11 Supreme Court judges with nine of them, including three women, appointed in one go.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of farmer unions, will be holding a mahapanchayat in Lucknow on Monday in a show of strength days after the Prime Minister's announcement of repealing the three farm laws.
Among the keenly watched contests are those involving former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav (Kannauj, UP) and Union ministers Giriraj Singh (Begusarai, Bihar), Nityanand Rai (Ujiarpur, Bihar) and Raosaheb Danve (Jalna, Maharashtra).
"There are other senior leaders who also have not got a place in the executive committee. New people should also get an opportunity. I am aware of my duties and serving the people of my constituency is my first duty," she stressed.
A special bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli took note of the submissions that one of the witnesses has been attacked and asked the state to ensure protection of witnesses of the case.
The labourers have been trapped since Sunday morning when a part of the tunnel collapsed following a landslide.
'In order to stop the BJP actually, you need a party that changes the discourse rather than positing another pole for polarising it further. The answer to this kind of politics lies in refocusing the agenda on development'
Nine more people have died as heavy rains lashed Uttar Pradesh for the third day, taking the death toll to 28, while a red alert has been sounded on Tuesday in six districts including the worst-hit Barabanki and Gonda.
In a statement, she said she has not been produced in front of a magistrate or any other judicial officer and neither has she been allowed to meet her legal counsel, who has been standing at the gate of the compound since morning.
At least 21 persons have died and thousands were marooned in villages across eight districts of Uttar Pradesh where release of water from dams in Nepal have caused major floods, even as large parts of the state were heading towards a drought-like situation due to scanty monsoon rain.
A 21-year-old farmer was killed and a few others injured following a clash between security personnel and protesting farmers at Khanauri on the Punjab-Haryana border.
Gandhi has submitted the bill in Parliament but it is yet to be introduced.
Despite the prime minister's surprise announcement, farmer leaders have maintained the protesters won't budge until the three contentious laws are formally repealed in Parliament.
A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana took note of the submissions of lawyer Prashant Bhushan that the other accused in the case are moving courts for grant of bail citing the relief granted to Ashish Mishra.
In an apparent message to the G23, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Saturday said she is a full-time, hands-on party president and there is no need for leaders to speak to her through the media.
Farmers leaders taking part in the 'Delhi Chalo' agitation on Monday rejected the Centre's proposal of procuring pulses, maize and cotton at MSP by government agencies for five years, saying it was not in farmers' interest and announced that they will march towards the national capital on Wednesday.
A panel of Union ministers held a fourth round of talks with farmer leaders in Chandigarh on Sunday over their demands, including a legal guarantee of MSP, as thousands of protesting farmers camped at the Punjab-Haryana border.
The parliamentary affairs minister also said the productivity of Lok Sabha was around 82 per cent and that of Rajya Sabha around 48 per cent.
The Congress on Monday attacked the government over the passage of the farm laws repeal bill in the Lok Sabha without a discussion, charging that all parliamentary norms have been 'thrown to the wind'.
The Delhi Assembly on Friday suspended Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Jitender Mahajan from its one-day special session and also marshalled out BJP legislators Anil Bajpai and Mohan Singh Bisht for allegedly disrupting the proceedings of the House.
Taking cognisance of attacks on the minority community, the National Commission for Minorities sent a notice to the governments of Uttar Pradesh and Tripura seeking reports on the recent cases of violence against the minority community.
The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of the agitating unions, is meeting on Sunday to decide on the next course of action, including on the MSP issue and the proposed daily tractor march to Parliament during the upcoming Winter Session, SKM core committee member Darshan Pal said.
Successive elections have demonstrated that the BJP campaign switches towards polarisation when it is faced with palpable discontent among the electorate, notes Utkarsh Mishra.
With the 2024 Lok Sabha elections less than eight months away, the SP is experimenting with yet another template of combining a soft Hindutva tenor with its time-tested Muslim-Yadav combination to reclaim its lost political capital vis-a-vis the BJP.
It was curtains down on the high-decibel campaigning for the fourth phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls as sparring among political rivals intensified during the last-minute canvassing on Monday.
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