When the ruling BJD is set to hold a Chasi Samavesh at Sohela in Bargarh district to claim that farmers are not dying due to crop loss and debt burden, reports of three farmers, including one of Sohela, ending lives on Sunday seem to have ridiculed the Government’s assertion.
Tarani Pariha, a farmer of Biripali village under Sohela block, died at a hospital at Baragah while undergoing treatment for poison consumption. Tarani had consumed poison on Saturday.
He was under mental pressure after his crops in about three acres were damaged due to scanty rainfall. He had borrowed money from private moneylenders for cultivation, said family sources.
In another incident, a farmer of Baleswar district jumped before a moving train at Baleswar and died on Sunday morning. The deceased was identified as Paramananda Ghadei of Nuagaon village under the Soro police station.
Paramananda was under severe stress as his crops were damaged due to deficient rainfall during the current Kharif season.
“He was under stress over bad crops. He had discussed about this three-four times with me. He had availed loans of over Rs 1 lakh from private moneylenders and cooperative society. I had told him not to worry over the loss and the debts would be repaid gradually. My mother woke me up when she did not find my father at home. After some time, I found his body near the railway tracks,” said Paramananda’s son Bijay.
Paramananda had undertaken cultivation on five acres of land, Bijay said. The GRP recovered the body and sent it for post mortem. An unnatural death case has been registered and investigation has begun into the incident, sources said.
Similarly, Remati Majhi (35), a farmer of Dhamnapada village under Boden block in Nuapada district committed suicide by hanging herself from a tree on her 3-acre paddy field on Saturday morning.
She is the first women farmer in the district to commit suicide due to crop loss.
Villagers said Remati’s husband Umashankar had migrated to Surat in search of work in early July this year, just before the beginning of the current Kharif operations.
Remati had undertaken paddy cultivation on her share of three acre land with help of other members of her in-laws house. But, all her crops were damaged due to drought. She then led a very measurable life with her two minor children in her husband’s absence.
“The only succour was 25 kgs rice under PDS and occasional wage earning. She often discussed with me about her planning to go to work in a brick kiln with her husband. But we had never thought that she would take such an extreme step” said Ahalya, sister-in-law of Remati.
Family members stated that she had wept a lot when her husband Umashankar arrived at the village on Saturday morning by narrating about crop loss and the problems she had gone through in her absence. “She was shocked when she learnt that Umashankar returned home without a single rupee” informed the villagers.
They have demanded that the Government pay compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the family and rehabilitee her two minor children at the earliest.