A group of central ministers will start a third round of talks with farmers who are protesting on Thursday. The goal of the Centre is to find a solution to the agitation that has blocked the borders between Punjab and Haryana, even as it looks like it will get worse on Wednesday. A number of significant farm unions have pledged their support for the movement.According to the sources, officials aware of the talks said that defense minister Rajnath Singh and agriculture minister Arjun Munda met on Wednesday. The former was consulted to resolve a standoff that was threatening to spread to Delhi, which security forces had fortified with multiple layers of barricades and cutting-edge surveillance technology.The announcement of high-level talks, however, did little to ease the unrest among Punjab and Haryana farmers, who kept sieging the borders between the two northern Indian states. New confrontations between protesters and security guards occurred at the crossings of Shambhu and Jind. On Friday, they have declared a national strike.After Tuesdays nightmare traffic jams, thousands of commuters chose public transport over private vehicles, Delhi Metro alone witnessed more than 71 lakh passengers on February 13 and the traffic mess in Delhi considerably improved, albeit there was still congestion along the borders with Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.An invitation given to agricultural leaders Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Sarwan Singh Pandher, who are spearheading the movement, states that Union ministers Piyush Goyal, Nityanand Rai, and Munda will lead the talks on Thursday. Rai attended the first of the two sessions of meetings with protestors, which were attended by Goyal, Munda, and February 8 and 12, respectively.The Bharatiya Kisan Union (Sidhupur) convener, Dallewal, stated that a decision regarding the protests future will be made based on the conclusion of Thursdays meeting.
