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 second phase of Rahul Gandhi's 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra' in Jharkhand, which was scheduled to commence on Wednesday, has been cancelled, a party official said.
The state government filed the special leave petition in the top court on March 11 against the high court's decision.
Authorities in Punjab have raised an objection over the use of a drone by Haryana to air-drop tear gas shells on agitating farmers in their territory at the Shambhu border, a senior official said on Wednesday.
Uddhav said fast implementation of the announcement is necessary.
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.
Making the announcement, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said this was the "biggest" loan waiver scheme in the country.
The Janata Dal-Secular leader, who was sworn-in Karnataka chief minister last week after the Congress extended unconditional support to his party, said he is ready with the guidelines on farm loan waiver, details of which will be disclosed on Wednesday.
Sachin has now applied for a homologation waiver of Rs 15 lakh.
The farm loan waiver scheme may not trigger a tendency among farmers to default intentionally, Amarendra Sahoo, chief general manager, rural planning and credit department, Reserve Bank of India, said on Thursday.
Modi claimed the Janata Dal-Secular-Congress coalition government which came to power in Karnataka recently had waived only 800 farm loans.
Bracing for another agitation by farmers, police are fortifying the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh and Delhi-Haryana borders with barricades and deploying more than 5,000 security personnel, a senior police officer said here on Friday.
The Union HRD minister Smriti Irani visited Hindu college recently to sort the issue of non-extension of fee waiver for persons with disabilities.
In an indication of the "positive trajectory" of the bilateral ties, the United States has issued a waiver, second in six months, for sale of major defence equipment to Pakistan citing national security interest.
Union ministers Arjun Munda, Piyush Goyal and Nityanand Rai and farmer leaders from Punjab will meet on Sunday for the fourth round of talks.
With protesting farmers seeking to march to the national capital, security remained tight on Wednesday with personnel deployed in huge numbers and barricades regulating movement in central Delhi and at border points with Haryana, which can cause hardships to commuters.
Farmer leader and Lok Sabha member Raju Shetti, who participated in the talks, said he was happy that their demands had been met.
The draft of the proposal for the India-specific exemption at the Nuclear Suppliers Group has undergone further changes which include a provision for regular information by its head about New Delhi's adherence to its guidelines on global atomic trade, a move aimed at pacifying countries having reservations over the waiver to India.
The EC reminded Gandhi that the Model Code of Conduct prohibits leaders from making unverified allegations against political rivals.
Seeking to allay apprehensions of members on farm loan waiver, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Friday 'every' suggestion made on the ambitious scheme was under examination.
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.
Stalin said that Modi should allow the farmers to meet him and offer a consoling solution at the earliest.
However, finding the funds to fulfill them will be a herculean task.
Ultimately, it boils down to whether a loan waiver will help without taking action to improve irrigation facilities and to ensure remunerative prices for farmers.
For many years now, the Congress and its allies have not had any noteworthy representation from the area. The loan-waiver package may not improve things in the next general elections in 2009, Business Standard found out in an extensive tour of the area. Most farmers said they did not find it worthwhile to go to a bank for loan because the process was too cumbersome.
With the Opposition targeting the government on alleged irregularities in the farm loan waiver scheme, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday promised "stringent possible action" against defaulters, if any.
Farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher on Thursday demanded registration of a murder case against those responsible for the death of a protesting farmer at the Khanauri border point of Punjab-Haryana.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday termed as "hoax" the government's Rs 60,000 crore (Rs 600 billion) farm loan waiver package, saying the move was just to make political capital as in effect it will put the major burden on future governments.
The finance ministry has called a meeting of the State-Level Bankers Committee in New Delhi on Tuesday, which will be attended by officials from scheduled commercial banks, regional rural banks, cooperatives, Reserve Bank of India, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, the Centre as well as states. The meeting will be presided over by financial services department secretary Arun Ramanathan.
The police deployed tear gas and water cannons for a second day to stop the farmers from marching to Delhi.
The United States' efforts to isolate Iran for its alleged clandestine development of a nuclear weapons capability will figure in the strategic talks between Washington and New Delhi this week, but whether India will be issued a waiver from sanctions against those nations that do not dramatically curtail oil imports from Iran will not be a part of the discussions, a senior US official has indicated.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann also joined the meeting at the Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration in Sector 26 in Chandigarh.
Against predictions by most exit polls that the ruling Congress had an edge in the state, the BJP banked heavily on the charisma of the PM.
Notwithstanding the resolution of G-8 countries on curbing transfer of enrichment and reprocessing technology, India on Thursday asserted that it was proceeding with bilateral civil nuclear deals with various countries on the basis of 'clean waiver' granted by the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
The Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) will on Saturday hold dharnas outside the residences of three senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders in Punjab on the fifth day of the farmers' protest over their various demands, including a legal guarantee for a minimum support price (MSP).
The government has assured that all suggestions such as raising the land ceiling limit for the waiver will be considered. The loan waiver scheme would also cover all agricultural loans disbursed by private scheduled commercial banks as well. Congress MP Mohsina Kidwai wanted to know whether the government would raise the land ceiling for the waiver to farmers from the existing limit and whether it would come out with a package for the farmers to pay off money lender loans.
Here are the main factors that impact the November 23 elections in the state.
The opposition Congress listed 59 promises in its 106-page manifesto, with assurances for all sections of the society, including farmers, women and government employees.
The UPA government had last year announced a nearly Rs 71,000 crore (Rs 710 billion) farm loan waiver scheme to offer relief to farmers, especially the small and medium ones who were unable to access fresh loans due to non-payment of dues. Noting that the full impact of failure of monsoon was yet to be assessed, the minister said the country would, however, be able to achieve six per cent plus economic growth during the current fiscal.
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