One more Odisha farmer commits suicide, another battles for life

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Nuapada, Oct 22:

Yet another farmer in Odisha’s Nuapada district allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself to death at his home today.

The farmer identified as Bhubaneswar Behera of Barpadar village under Khadial block in the district allegedly hanged himself to death after suffering crop loss. Police which rushed to the village on being informed has seized deceased Bhubaneswar’s body and sent it for post mortem.

Local sources said the deceased farmer Bhubaneswar had four acres of agricultural land out which he had lost an acre and a half during construction of a canal. He was supposed to get a compensation of Rs 10 lakh for the land lost to the canal.

However, he was yet to receive the compensation amount and had cultivated paddy crop on the remaining two and half acres of land. For the purpose he had borrowed money and was under severe mental stress for the last few days as his paddy crop had failed due to scanty rainfall, the sources added.

In a related development, another farmer Judhistir Putel is battling for his life at the government hospital in Kantabanji in neighbouring Bolangir district after an alleged suicide attempt.

Sources said Judhisthir hailing from Sargiguda under Kantabanji police limits allegedly attempted suicide by consuming pesticide on Wednesday. He was rescued by fellow farmers from his agricultural field and has been admitted to the government hospital at Kantabanji hospital in a critical condition.

Judhistir had grown paddy and vegetables crops in his four acres of land for which he had borrowed Rs 50,000 from the village co-operative society and Rs 30,000 from Central Bank of India, the sources added.

However, with his crops ruined due to deficit rainfall, Judhisthir was in a disturbed state of mind. His family members have alleged that unable to bear the burden of debt, he had consumed pesticide in an attempt to end his life.