Balipada: Yet another farmer allegedly committed suicide by consuming pesticide in Ganjam district due to crop loss by pest attack and unseasonal rainfall, a report said Saturday.
The deceased was identified as Rajendra Bhuyan (48), a native of Baulajholi village under Kukudakhandi block.
His second son Lakshman found him dead on returning home with froth oozing out from his mouth and informed the villagers.
Sadar police have begun an investigation and sent the body for post mortem after registration of a case.
Tension prevailed as the villagers led by Congress leader Saka Sujit blocked the Kukudakhandi- Baulajholi road demanding compensation for the family of the deceased.
They also detained revenue inspector Gobind Chandra Brahma, alleging that he had not conducted a proper survey when he visited the village to assess crop damage.
They relented after tehsildar Bhabani Prasad Mishra and BDO Sambhunath Nandi visited the protest site and assured a compensation of Rs 10,000 from the district Red-Cross fund, Rs 20,000 from National Family Benefit Scheme and Rs 2000 under Harish Chandra Yojana for the bereaved family.
Later, the tehsildar, BDO, block chairperson Kamkhya Prasad Patra, AO Biswaranjan Behera, Digapahandi DAO Ramachandra Pattnaik, local BJP and Congress leaders met the bereaved family.
The village is part of the Digapahandi Assembly segment represented by state food supplies and consumer welfare minister Surya Narayan Patro.
Bhuyan had cultivated paddy on 25 ‘bharan’ of land as a share-cropper and on four ‘bharan’ on his own farmland by borrowing Rs 70,000 from various self-help groups and money lenders and Rs 18,000 from Berhampur based Axis Bank.
Half of his cultivation was destroyed by ‘Chakada’ and later by brown plant hopper pests.
He had hardly recovered, when the low-pressure triggered rainfall over last four days and shattered all his hopes of making good some of the loss he had suffered due to pest attack.
The rainfall wreaked havoc on his ripe standing paddy crops which he had not harvested yet.
The deceased visited his farmland thrice Saturday morning. Later, he came back home and allegedly consumed pesticide when none of his family members were present in the house.
When contacted, the tehsildar said he has asked the RI to prepare a report on crop loss and the compensation will be paid once the report is received.
Minister Patro said he has asked the tehsildar to visit the spot on learning about the farmer’s death but claimed that the deceased never registered his name in the cooperative society nor had taken any loan from the society.
He said further action will be taken on receipt of the probe report from the district collector. PNN
