Digapahandi: In a shocking incident, a differently-abled man tried to die by suicide by consuming poison in the presence of Ganjam collector, Berhampur SP and other district officials during a joint grievance hearing on the block office premises here in Ganjam district, Monday.
The person who attempted to die by suicide was identified as J Balakrushna Dora, a resident of Patand under Kushapada panchayat of Digapahandi block. Government officials rushed him to Digapahandi community health centre from where he was shifted to MKCG Medical College & Hospital in Berhampur in a critical condition.
According to reports, Ganjam District Collector Dibya Jyoti Parida, Berhampur SP Saravana Vivek M, DRDA project director V Keerti Vasan, district social security officer Kalyani Das, Digapahandi BDO Haladhar Sabar, additional tehsildar Ramesh Chandra Behera and Digapahandi IIC Deepti Ranjan Behera and various department officials were present at the grievance redressal camp.
The hearing was underway when Dora came on a tricycle and consumed poison to end life in front of the collector alleging inaction by revenue inspector despite repeated requests for land demarcation.
On being directed by the collector, officials rushed Dora to Digapahandi CHC and later, shifted him to MKCG Medical College and Hospital in Berhampur.
Sources said Dora had repeatedly visited the revenue circle office at Digapahandi and requested the RI to demarcate his homestead land which had been encroached by his neighbour. He alleged that the RI, Akshaya Mallick, demanded bribe to do the needful and harassed him by forcing him to make repeated rounds of his office. The demarcation could not be carried out as he failed to bribe the RI, the victim alleged. Frustrated, Dora reached the grievance hearing camp and tried to end life by consuming the poison, said sources.
When contacted, the RI rejected the charges stating that as per the application of Dora he visited his house for land demarcation a week back. He failed to demarcate the land as Dora had stored firewood and other materials in his backyard while his neighbour was not present.
He clicked the photograph of geotagging of the land in Dora’s presence and advised him to clear the firewood and other materials for demarcation of the land. He said even the amin and other officials of Digapahandi revenue circle office visited Dora’s house last Saturday for demarcation of the land. However, they failed to do so as the backyard was not cleaned. They told him that they will demarcate the land after a few days to which Dora consented and gave an undertaking too.
In the camp, the Collector attended to 319 personal and joint complaints and distributed tricycles to seven specially-abled persons. However, the hearing was cut short due to Dora’s suicide bid.
