Post News Network
Purusottampur, Nov 19: A share-cropper in Singipur village under this block in Ganjam district, who had consumed poison to end life over alleged crop loss and debt burden, succumbed at the MKCG Medical College and Hospital in Berhampur Thursday.
Deceased Lochan Bhuyan (57) alias Musha had been admitted to the hospital by villagers after he consumed poison last Friday. Bhuyan was a poor person and had no land of his own. He had taken four acres of land on lease from villagers in neighbouring Chingudighat village to earn a living.
He was living with his family under a polythene sheet after he failed to repair his house which had given way during cyclonic storm Phailin. His only son Madhab (30) is bed-ridden and is battling with life. He had become penniless after spending a lot of money by borrowing on his son and wife’s treatment.
His wife, however, failed to recover and died one and half months back. Later, he borrowed more and brought a tractor on hire for cultivation. This time too he failed to pay the rent and wages of the labourers. As harvest neared he met the co-villagers again and requested them to lend him some money. The villagers refused to give more money as he had failed to clear their earlier dues.
Living under constant stress, he was unsure of reaping a good harvest as he had spent more time on his wife and son’s treatment. He was also under stress to manage his family comprising his daughter-in-law and grandchildren. All these perhaps drove him to take the extreme step. He was writhing in pain when villagers shifted him to Kodala hospital first and later to MKCG Hospital.
His daughter-in-law Tapani Bhuyan claimed that the family was under a Rs 1 lakh debt burden. They do not have a BPL card and have not received any government assistance for her husband’s treatment. No government official visited the village to probe the incident while BDO Lokanath Behera gave away Rs 2000 for cremation of the deceased.