Two days after the PM announced the government’s decision to repeal the three contentious farm laws, members of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) announced on Sunday that the protests will go on till the government addressed their demand for a legal guarantee on MSP and other issues related to the agrarian distress. These include no changes in the subsidy of electricity, withdrawal of cases against protesting farmers, compensation to grieving families whose members died during the protest, and sacking and arrest of Union MoS Ajay Mishra in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case.

The next meeting of the farmers’ body is scheduled for November 27.

The SKM, in its open letter to the PM released on Sunday evening, welcomed the decision to repeal the laws, but called it a “one-sided announcement”. The farmers said their demand for a government guarantee in writing on the MSP system, which assures them of a fixed price for their crops, 1.5 times of the production cost, was as critical as repealing the laws. It has demanded cancelling of cases of stubble burning against farmers in the Delhi-NCR region, withdrawal of hundreds of cases against protesting farmers across the country, sacking and arrest of Union MoS Ajay Mishra among others.

The union’s pre-planned programmes – a mahapanchayat in Lucknow on Monday and a gathering of farmer families at Tikri, Singhu and Ghazipur on November 26 marking a year of resistance, and a march to the parliament on November 29 – will go on as usual, Farmer leader Balbir Singh Rajewal said.

BKU chief Rakesh Tikait was conspicuous by his absence but his aides said he was preparing for the mahapanchayat in Lucknow and had sent his brother Yudhvir for the meeting.

SKM has also given a call to its supporters to reach Lucknow.

Along with the farm Acts, the farmers were also demanding the rollback of the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2020, proposed by the Centre earlier this year. “During the talks with farmers, the Centre had agreed to put on hold the electricity bill and withdraw some provisions in the NCR air quality ordinance. But there has been no written assurance to us on that,” Balbir Singh Rajewal said.

All India Kisan Mazdoor Sabha general secretary and part of SKM, Ashish Mittal, said: “We had seriously thought about the way we want the agitation to move forward then. We are thinking the same today, but with far more confidence and responsibility. We are not on the backfoot anymore. There are bigger agriculture issues that have to be resolved and we will fight till we get the government’s attention.”

He said the issue of MSP was critical to farmers, more so in west UP where farmers have been facing problems due to reduction in government procurement and uneven distribution of resources, apart from increasing input costs. Swaraj Abhiyan chief Yogendra Yadav, who also attended the meeting, told ET that the repealing of the laws was a step in the right direction, but legal guarantee of MSP has been a demand of the farmers since the beginning of the protest.