Post News Network
Nuapada, Oct 17: Even as calls for compensation for damaged crops grew shriller in the state, another farmer committed suicide in Nuapada district Saturday.
According to reports, Gayaram Majhi (32) committed suicide by consuming pesticide in Kuliabandh village under Boden block in Nuapada, Saturday.
The incident came seven days after a debt-ridden farmer committed suicide in the same block. The village was adjudged as an Adarsha village by a local MP.
Gayaram Friday had gone to his farmland to apply pesticide even as the plants were wilting under the impact of drought and pest attack.
In the evening, he fainted at home. He was rushed to the district headquarters hospital where he succumbed Saturday. He is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter.
Leaders of various political outfits visited the house of the bereaved family. Meanwhile, sub-collector Sharat Srichandan, emergency officer Chandrahas Nayak, revenue inspector Yubraj Tripathy visited the family and provided Rs 500 from District Red Cross and Rs 2000 from Harishchandra Yojana.
The district administration also assured Rs 20,000 from the family welfare scheme and a housing unit under Mo Kudia Yojana.
The victim was staying at his in-law’s house at Kuliabandha after marriage. He cultivated five acres of land as a sharecropper, but the crop was damaged due to drought. He had borrowed Rs 25,000 from a local cooperative society another Rs 25,000 from a labour contractor and Rs 15,000 from a moneylender to raise crops.
His family members said he was under severe stress for his debts.
Notably, Anakar Behera, a farmer of Itagadi in Kubera panchayat under Tihid block in Bhadrak district committed suicide after consuming poison Thursday. He was also under severe mental agony as he was unable to pay back his bank loans.
A couple of days ago, a debt-ridden farmer had committed suicide in Bolangir district. The deceased was identified as Pita Nag (45) of Jampada village under Jamkhunta panchayat in Bangomunda block.
A week back, another farmer had hanged himself in Dadrabahal village under Ghuchepali panchayat of Patnagarh block.
According to family sources, Nag had gone to his farmland Tuesday. As he did not return home, his family searched for him and spotted him lying comatose near his field with a bottle of pesticide lying there.
He had borrowed Rs 40,000 from a moneylender at a monthly interest of 10 per cent to meet his farming expenses. He cultivated paddy and cotton on 20 acres of land out of which 50 per cent was on a share-cropping basis.
