Protesting farmers have agreed to hold talks with court-appointed panel: Punjab govt tells SC

The Punjab government on Monday apprised the Supreme Court that the farmers protesting at the Punjab-Haryana border have agreed to hold talks with the court-appointed panel.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Punjab government, submitted before a bench headed by Justice Surya Kant that the meeting was fixed for 3 p.,m today, where a “breakthrough” is likely to take place.

Thereafter, the Justice-Kant led Bench deferred till January 10 the hearing on a contempt plea seeking action against the Chief Secretary of Punjab over the non-hospitalisation of farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who is on a fast unto death.

The 70-year-old cancer patient has been fasting at Khanauri, the border point between Punjab and Haryana, since November 26 in support of their long-pending demands, including a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops, loan waiver and reforms to improve conditions in the agricultural sector.

In September last year, the top court ordered the formation of a committee to amicably resolve the grievances of the farmers protesting at the Punjab-Haryana border. It had suggested the panel headed by Justice Nawab Singh, a former judge of Punjab and Haryana High Court, to hold negotiations with the protesting farmers for the removal of their tractors, trolleys, etc., from the National Highway for the ease of the general public.

Further, the apex court had granted liberty to farmers to shift their peaceful protests to an alternative site.

Apart from Justice Nawab Singh, the panel comprised former Haryana DGP B.S. Sandhu, agricultural analyst Devender Sharma, Prof Ranjit Singh Ghuman, agricultural economist Dr Sukhpal Singh, and Prof Baldev Raj Kamboj as a special invitee.

In the previous hearing, the Supreme Court said that it had never directed to end the hunger strike of Dallewal but was only concerned with his health.

"There appears to be a deliberate attempt in the entire media where state government officers (of Punjab) are trying to create an impression that there is a persuasion by this court to Mr Dallewal to break his fast. Our directions were not to break his fast. We only said that let his health be taken care of and he can continue his peaceful protest even when he is hospitalised,” it had told Punjab’s Advocate General Gurminder Singh.

The Justice Kant-led Bench said that shifting Dallewal to the hospital should not mean that he will not continue his fast but that the medical facilities will ensure that no harm is caused to his life.

It had cautioned that if the Punjab government keeps failing to implement its order regarding the hospitalisation of Dallewal, the apex court will seek intervention of the Centre.

"It is entirely the responsibility of the State of Punjab to ensure the stable health condition of Mr Jagjit Singh Dallewal, for which if he requires hospitalisation, the authorities must ensure to do so. The state government, therefore, will take a call as to whether Mr Dallewal can be shifted to the makeshift hospital (temporary hospital, which is said to have been set up at a distance of 700 metres from the site) or to any other well-equipped hospital,” the SC had ordered on December 20.