The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (non-political) on Wednesday called off its demonstration at the Khanauri border between Punjab and Haryana after the Centre agreed to hold talks with them.Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, a former Haryana chief minister, will meet the protesting farmers in Delhi on September 4.The development also opens the possibility of resumption of dialogue between the Centre and the farmers after a long gap.“We had planned a small padyatra of just 51 farmers, but the Haryana Government tried to curtail it to a large extent. They sealed the highway on their side using stone boulders, barbed wire, temporary barricades, heavy vehicles, and a large security deployment. We were forced to resort to a sit-in due to such a response by the authorities. Farmers are blamed for bringing tractors and trolleys, thus causing inconvenience. But this time, it was a simple foot march which was stopped by the paranoid authorities,” SKM (non-political) leader Abhimanyu Kohar told The Tribune.“Union Minister ML Khattar has invited us for talks. We hope to have a concrete discussion on the issues faced by the farmers, be it the proposed India-US trade agreement, MSP, or others. If the talks do not go well, we may resort to protests again,” he said.Kohar said the Union Government had promised to give them an audience when they protested at Jantar Mantar last year, but no invitations were offered.“We had recently done a yatra from Kaniyakumari to Kashmir, and submitted a charter of demands collected from 32,000 villages to the Central Government on March 19 this year. The government had even then promised to sit for a discussion with us, which again did not happen. It is high time this government listens to the voice of the people, and the voice of the farmers,” he added.The SKM (non-political), led by Jagjit Singh Dallewal, had been camping on the Khanauri border since August 16, when Haryana authorities stopped its members from undertaking their proposed Kisan Bachao Paidal Yatra from Khanauri to Jantar Mantar in Delhi. The farmers had planned to cover around 228 km between August 16 and 29, but the authorities put up multiple layers of barricading and security arrangements on NH-52.The farmers had also announced they would march bare-chested towards the sealed border on Wednesday, but the proposed action was called off after the government meeting invitation came. The highway, connecting Punjab’s Sangrur district with Jind, had been closed since Jattvibeday morning, forcing vehicles to use alternative routes.The foot march had been planned against the proposed India-US trade deal and to press for a legal guarantee for procurement of crops at the minimum support price (MSP).