Chandigarh/New Delhi, 12 Feb

Farmers are set to begin their 'Delhi Chalo' march on Tuesday morning, a farmer leader asserted after their five-hour-long meeting with two Union ministers over their demands remained inconclusive.

Earlier on Monday, tractor-trolleys set out from different parts of Punjab to join the protest, mainly to press for a law to guarantee a minimum support price for crops, while all eyes were on the second round of meeting between the government and the farmer union in Chandigarh. "We do not think the government is serious on any of our demands. We do not think they want to fulfil our demands.... Tomorrow, we will march towards Delhi at 10 am," farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher told reporters here after the meeting ended just before midnight.

Union Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda, who along with Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal attended the meeting, said a consensus was reached on most issues and the government proposed that the remaining be addressed through the formation of a committee. "The government always wants that we can resolve every issue through dialogue.... We are still hopeful and we welcome talks," he said.

In Delhi, massive deployment of police and paramilitary personnel besides multi-layered barricading have been made to seal the national capital borders at Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur to prevent the protesting farmers from entering the city on Tuesday.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha have announced that more than 200 farmer unions will head to Delhi to press the Centre to accept their demands. SKM (Non-Political) leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee general secretary Sarwan Singh Pandher, among others, were part of the meeting, which began at the Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration in Sector 26 in Chandigarh at around 6.30 pm.

The first meeting with the Union ministers was held on February 8 in which detailed discussions with the leaders of farmer organisations took place. In the meeting on Monday, the Centre is learnt to have agreed to withdraw the cases against the farmers registered during the 2020-21 agitation gainst the now-repealed farm laws, sources said.

However, the sources said, farmer leaders were adamant on a legal guarantee to minimum support price for crops, which is one of their key demands. Pandher said, "We held a long discussion with them and we discussed every issue.... Our effort was to avoid any confrontation. We wanted the issue to be resolved through dialogue with them. Had the government offered anything to us, then we could have reconsidered holding our agitation."

He claimed that the government's intention was not clean. "It did not want to give anything to us.... We told them to take a decision. They did not take any decision on the farmers' demand of giving legal guarantee to the minimum support price," he said, adding, "Tomorrow, we will march towards Delhi at 10 am."

Earlier in the day, tractor-trolleys in large numbers set out from different parts of Punjab to join the march. Pandher said a convoy of tractor-trolleys set out in the morning from Beas in Amritsar to assemble in Fatehgarh Sahib district. Many farmers from Moga, Bathinda and Jalandhar districts have also started from their villages to join the march.