"It is not a big victory for us, but we were successful in getting a shut door open," said Punjab farmer leaders on an invitation extended by the Centre for holding a meeting to discuss their demands on February 14 at Chandigarh.

They further said fasting farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal had refused to take medical aid till the end, but when farmer leaders kept requesting him, he told them with a feeling of sadness, "Do whatever you feel is right." Considering the whole situation, the farmer leaders said they decided that medical aid for Dallewal should be started.

"We cannot say it is a big victory, but we can say that we made one step forward. We were successful in getting a meeting (from the Centre), and we were successful in getting a shut door open (for talks)," farmer leader Kaka Singh Kotra said.

On Saturday, a high-level central delegation led by Ministry of Agriculture Joint Secretary Priya Ranjan met Dallewal and representatives of Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha at the Khanauri border point and invited them for the resumption of talks on February 14.

Following the announcement of the proposed meeting, Dallewal agreed to take medical aid. He had been refusing any aid since he sat on a fast-unto-death on November 26. After the meeting, the protesting farmers released pictures showing Dallewal taking medical aid through an intravenous drip.

Speaking to reporters at the Khanauri border, farmer leaders on Sunday said that they had demanded from the delegation that the meeting should be held earlier, as February 14, the date fixed for the meeting, was too far.

The officials told the farmers that ministers and officers had been deputed for preparations in the wake of Republic Day on January 26 and secondly, the model code of conduct was in force until February 9 in the wake of the Delhi assembly polls, said farmer leader Abhimanyu Kohar.

Kohar said the delegation told them the first round of the meeting would be held in Chandigarh and the next round would take place in Delhi.

The central government delegation members, who came with an invitation for the meeting, stressed that Dallewal should remain in the proposed meeting, said Kohar.

"We requested him to take minimum medical aid so that he could participate in the meeting, but he denied," said Kohar. "We kept requesting him for medical aid, but he refused till the end," he added. Then, farmer leaders met him, and Dallewal, with a feeling of sadness, asked them to "do whatever you feel is right." Kohar said a panel of eight doctors provided medical aid to Dallewal.

Farmer leaders said Dallewal's indefinite fast would continue until the farmers' demands were met.

The farmer leaders further said their program of taking out a tractor march on January 26 is intact. Four rounds of meetings took place between the central ministers and protesting farmers on February 8, 12, 15 and 18 last year, but the talks had remained inconclusive.

A panel of three union ministers then -- Arjun Munda, Piyush Goyal and Nityanand Rai -- had held talks with representatives of farmers on February 18 last year. They had rejected the Centre's proposal of buying pulses, maize and cotton crops at MSP by government agencies for five years.

Dallewal, who is the convener of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political), has been on an indefinite hunger strike at the Khanauri border point between Punjab and Haryana since November 26 last year in support of their various demands and since then has been surviving on water, farmer leaders said.

Farmers, under the banner of the SKM (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, have been camping at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13 last year, after security forces did not allow them to march to Delhi to press for their various demands, including a legal guarantee of minimum support price (MSP) for their crops.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.