Patiala, Feb. 1 -- A day before the Union budget, protesting farmer unions have demanded a special budgetary allocation to implement a legal guarantee for the minimum support price (MSP).

The farmer unions, staging sit-ins at the Punjab and Haryana borders since last year, have been invited for talks with the Union government on February 14. However, they assert that discussions would be pointless without a budgetary provision for implementing the MSP guarantee.

Sarwan Singh Pandher, senior farmer leader and convener of the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM), said: "If the Union government is serious about fulfilling the farmers' demands, they should allocate funds for legalising MSP, as already estimated by CRISIL Market Intelligence & Analyti...