post news network
Aska, Dec 19: A sharecropper at Pudugeshwar Palli village on outskirts here in Ganjam district committed suicide by consuming poison due to alleged crop loss and an acute financial crisis Saturday.
The deceased was identified as Prasanna Kumar Sahu. He consumed poison last Sunday and was first admitted to Aska hospital. He was later shifted to MKCG Medical College and Hospital in Berhampur where he succumbed Saturday afternoon while undergoing treatment.
Police handed over the body to his family after conducting a post-mortem. A pall of gloom descended in the village as villagers cremated the body.
Sources said Sahu was an impoverished farmer and had no landed properties of his own except a house which he received under the Indira Awas Housing Scheme. To earn a living for his family of five, he had taken over two acres of land on lease from co-villagers and was carrying out cultivation.
However, that was not able to provide him enough income for which his elder son Nirakar studying in Class-IX had to plough other farmers’ plots.
Sahu’s 80-year-old mother Rekhi said her son had suffered crop loss for several consecutive years despite his best efforts. He was in terrible distress ever since his wife began to urge him to pay back `1,500 that he had borrowed from self-help group members.
Last Sunday, Sahu was found writhing in pain in his farmland. He was first admitted to Aska hospital and was later rushed to MKCG Medical College and Hospital where he succumbed Saturday.
In the second incident, G Ghanashyam Dora (35) consumed pesticide Tuesday and was undergoing treatment at Berhampur based-MKCG Medical College and Hospital where he succumbed Saturday. He had taken a plot of land on lease to eke out a living.
However, he suffered crop loss due to scanty rainfall while a loan that he had taken added to his woes. He took the extreme step after his attempts to find work as a migrant labourer ended in vain.
