Rajnath Singh holds meeting to discuss farmers' demands

New Delhi: Home Minister Rajnath on Tuesday held discussions with Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh and a few others on how to resolve the farmers' issues and pacify them, officials said.

The development comes after farmers marching towards Delhi as part of the Bharatiya Kisan Union's (BKU) protest call over demands ranging from farm loan waiver to cut in fuel prices, were stopped at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border Tuesday with police using water cannons to disperse them.

The home minister also spoke to chief of BKU Rakesh Tikait over phone and conveyed the government's keenness to address their demands, a Home Ministry official said.

The issues of immediate consideration of the government include lifting the National Green Tribunal's order to ban 10-year-old tractors, uniform and complete procurement of crops, uniformity in loan waiver in the country, equal electricity tariff in the country, farmers' friendly insurance scheme and equal pension to both farmers and agricultural labourers, he said. 

Those who attended the meeting include Union minister of state for agriculture Gajendra Singh Shekhawat,?Uttar Pradesh sugarcane minister Suresh Rana, Union home secretary Rajiv Gauba, Director of the Intelligence Bureau Rajiv Jain and Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik.