Even as the ruling BJD staged a farmers’ rally in Bargarh district in western Odisha on Thursday and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik claimed that his Government has always been with the farming community, one more farmer died on the day, a week after he had consumed poison at his Sihipur village in Purushottampur block of Ganjam district in the southern part of the State.
The deceased lochan Bhuyan, who was a sharecropper, had last Thursday drunk pesticide and was admitted to hospital in a serious condition.
He had taken a loan of Rs30,000 for cultivation, but his crops were damaged due to scanty rain. He was under severe stress as to how to repay the loan and look after his family.
After he consumed poison, lochan had been admitted to the MKCG Medical College Hospital, Brahmapur but was later shifted to the SCB Medical College Hospital, Cuttack as his condition deteriorated.