Yet another farmer commits suicide in Odisha

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Nuapada, Oct 14:

Another farmer today committed suicide in Odisha’s Titilagarh, taking the death toll to 7 in 6 days.

Troubled by crop failure and his inability to pay Rs 1 lakh loan taken from relatives and friends, the farmer Peeta Nag who had consumed poison yesterday died in hospital today.

Nag, a native of Jampada in Titilagarh, used to grow cotton and paddy on around 9 acres of land and  had taken a loan of Rs 1 lakh for this purpose. He was troubled by crop failure due to poor rain and unable to pay back loan took the grave step of consuming pesticide, yesterday evening.

He was admitted to Khadial Mission hospital in Nuapada district in serious condition and died today at 8 am in the morning.

“He had taken pesticide to spray on the field yesterday evening, but when he did not return for a long time we went to find him and found that he had drunk the poison himself. We took him to the hospital but he died there,” said Arjun Nag, son of the deceased.

Meanwhile,  Odisha Human Rights Commission (OHRC) yesterday has sought a report from the state government within four weeks on alleged farmer suicides in the state. Working chairman of the state’s rights panel Justice B K Mishra gave the order while conducting a hearing on a petition on farmer suicides in the state due to crop loss.

The OHRC has directed the secretaries of Agriculture and Revenue department and Disaster Management department to conduct an inquiry into the alleged suicides by farmers and file the report within four weeks.