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The central government should bring an 'ordinance' regarding the legal guarantee to MSP, one of the farmer leaders - Sarwan Singh Pandher demanded on Saturday, as the 'Delhi Chalo' march begins its' Day 5. The request of the leader came one day before the 4th round of dialogues between farm leaders and Union ministers regarding the manifold demands put forth by the agriculturists. 

"If it (Centre) brings out an ordinance, it can bring it overnight, if it wants to. If the government wants a resolution of the farmers' protest, then it should bring an ordinance with immediate effect that it will enact a law on MSP, then discussions can proceed further," Pandher told reporters at the Shambhu border.

As far as the modalities are concerned, Pandher said any ordinance has a six-month validity.

On the issue of farm debt waiver, Pandher said the government is saying that the loan amount has to be assessed. The government can collect data from banks in this regard, he said adding, "It is a question of willpower." 

Union ministers Arjun Munda, Piyush Goyal Nityanand Rai, and farmer leaders will meet on Sunday for the fourth round of talks. The two sides met earlier on February 8, 12, and 15 but those talks remained inconclusive.

On the fifth day of their "Delhi Chalo" march -- called by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha -- the farmers stayed put at the two border points of Punjab and Haryana as they pressed the Centre to accept their demands, including a legal guarantee of a minimum support price (MSP) for crops.

What are farmers demanding? 

Besides a legal guarantee for MSP, the farmers are demanding implementation of the Swaminathan Commission's recommendations, pension for farmers and farm labourers, farm debt waiver, no hike in electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases, and "justice" for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act - 2013, and compensation to the families of the farmers who died during a previous agitation in 2020-21.