Misbehaviour by BDO, police officer pushes Odisha farmer to commit suicide

Odisha Sun Times Bureau

Bolangir, April 6: 

Another farmer  in Turekela block in Bolangir district committed suicide  because of alleged repeated misbehaviour by the local BDO and a police official.

The deceased has been identified as Duryodhan Bag a native of Dhusamunda village, he drank pesticide on Tuesday evening. He was later admitted to the Kantabanji health centre, but he died under treatment.

Notably, Bag’s wife Ujali Bag had committed suicide by consuming poison four months ago over alleged crop loss.

Following which,  the Turekela BDO had promised to provide Rs 10,000 help and a pucca house under Indra Awas Yojana (IAY) to Bag. The promise was made in the presence of Turekela police sub-inspector (SI) S L Bhoi.

But when Bag went to the BDO for the promised house he got only abuse. His appeals to Bhoi also resulted in contempt and verbal abuse of the poor peasant.

Distressed Bag was forced to commit suicide, his family has alleged.

Bag had grown cotton on five acres and paddy on two acres of land. He had taken loan from private money lenders, but the crops were damaged due to rain. He and his wife were under great stress to repay the loans and Ujali had consumed poison on November 1, 2015.

Meanwhile, a fortnight ago, Nandighosh Barik of Harbhanga village under Agalpur block in this district, committed suicide because of alleged disparaging words used by the local sub-collector