Bhapur: A sharecropper committed suicide by consuming pesticide reportedly over debt burden at Ostapala village under Sadar police limits in Dhenkanal district Tuesday.
Family members rushed Sadananda Sahu (40) to Bhapur primary health centre where doctors declared him brought dead.
The incident triggered tension in the area as family members and villagers kept the body on Puruna Katak-Sambalpur road and staged a blockade demanding compensation to the bereaved family.
They relented after Odapada tehsildar Lopamudra Mohanty gave away an ex-gratia of Rs 10,000 to the farmer’s family and assured the agitators of taking necessary action on completion of a probe.
Sadananda was under stress after he failed to pay back money he had borrowed from various sources due to fall in vegetable prices, said the deceased farmer’s wife Sujata Sahu.
According to sources, Sadananda had no land of his own and used to eke out a living by cultivating three acres of land of a person in neighbouring Ghatipiri village. He had borrowed Rs 30,000 from the landlord, Rs 70,000 from three self-help groups and Rs 80,000 from local moneylenders to raise crops.
He had cultivated vegetables but a fall in price dashed his hopes of repaying the loans. Things came to such a pass that he even failed to repay Rs 7,500 towards the rent of a tractor which he had hired to till the land.
Sadananda was pushed into distress after moneylenders pestered him to clear the debts. He consumed pesticide on his farmland and collapsed on coming back home.
Police sent the body for post-mortem and registered a case. PNN
