Dharmagarh: In yet another farmer suicide in Kalahandi district, a 32-year-old youth ended life at Ramachandrapur village under Golamunda block in Kalahandi district Tuesday night.
Villagers led by workers of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) staged a road blockade outside the Dharmagarh sub-divisional hospital keeping the body of the deceased on the road. The situation was brought under control after intervention of the administration.
Abhimanyu Bhoi of Ramachandrapur village consumed pesticide Tuesday evening. The family rushed him to the Dharmagarh sub-divisional hospital. He died as he was being shifted to the district headquarters hospital at Bhawanipatna after his condition deteriorated.
According to his family members, Abhimanyu had cultivated paddy on his 1.5 acres of land. He had also cultivated cotton on 1.5 acres of land on a share-cropping basis.
He suffered heavy losses due to multiple hailstorms in March. He was upset as he had taken a loan of over Rs 1 lakh from a money lender and Rs 40,000 from Utkal Gramya Bank. He had also taken some money by mortgaging his gold. Losing his mental balance, he took the extreme step Tuesday, sources said.
Even though the agitators demanded Rs 5 lakh compensation and other government benefits for the kin of the deceased, they relented after Dharmagarh tehsildar Krushna Patra provided Rs 2,000 under Harischandra Yojana and Rs 10,000 from Red Cross fund and promised to provide benefits under widow’s allowance scheme and Mo Kudia Yojana.
Tension gripped the hospital premises over delay in postmortem of the body. The situation was brought under control after intervention of the administration. Sub-divisional medical officer Dr Ashok Kumar Agrawal said conduction of the post-mortem of the body got held back due to delay by the police in providing its report.
Meanwhile, Dharmagarh tehsildar Jayakrushna Patra, sub-collector Manisha Banerjee and additional district agriculture officer and Golamunda panchayat executive officer visited the deceased’s family and started an investigation. PNN