Berhampur: The opposition BJD Friday urged the Odisha government to waive farm loans and purchase all paddy, irrespective of their fair average quality (FAQ), from the farmers in the wake of massive damage caused to crops due to unseasonal rainfall in different parts of the state.
The party raised the demand after the death of a 64-year-old farmer by suicide allegedly due to crop loss and debt at Baranga in Ganjam district’s Chhatrapur block on Thursday.
A five-member fact-finding team of the BJD visited the house of the farmer and spoke with his family members.
The deceased, Banamali Penthei, allegedly died by hanging himself in the bathroom after returning from his farmland.
As almost all paddy crops, both in harvested and ready-to-harvest stage in the district, have been affected due to the repeated unseasonal rain, the grains may not fulfil the FAQ norms, said former MLA Bikram Panda.
“We demanded that the government should procure the entire paddy from the farmers, irrespective of their FAQ norms,” he said.
“The farmer had taken loans, to the tune of a few lakh, from private parties and planned to repay after the harvest. He might have been hopeless after seeing the devastation of his standing crops in the farmland,” said Chandra Sekhar Sahu, former MP of Berhampur.
The fact-finding team has also demanded Rs 25 lakh compensation for the family of the deceased farmer.
“We have also demanded adequate compensation for the farmers, besides writing off the farm loans to boost their confidence and prevent more suicides,” Sahu said.
BJP MLA (Chhatrapur), Krushna Chandra Nayak, said the government was fully aware of the effect on paddy crops due to the untimely rain and Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi has been regularly reviewing the situation.
The exact cause of the death of the farmer in Baranga will be known only after the inquiry by the district administration is over, he said.
The legislator had also visited the deceased farmer’s house earlier in the day and provided Rs 30,000 as financial aid to his family members.
PTI
