Farmers’ suicide cases have again been reported with three peasants ending their lives due to crop loss and loan burden at different places in the State in the last five days.
The latest incident was reported from drought-hit Keonjhar district on Wednesday. The deceased was identified as Purusottam Dehuri of Janardanpur village under Sadar block of the district.
He consumed pesticide and breathed his last while undergoing treatment at the Keonjhar District Headquarters Hospital (DHH) on Wednesday morning.
The family members said Purushottam was under stress because of his inability to pay back the loans he had taken for undertaking farm activities during the Kharif season.
“My son was under tremendous stress because of the drought here. His tomato crop had failed and he had to pay back the loans he had taken from the Cooperative Society and a commercial bank,” his father Suna Dehuri said.
It may be mentioned here that while a farmer from Balangir hanged himself because of crop loss and loan burden on Tuesday, another from Dhenkanal district committed suicide the day before for the same reason.