Another farmer commits suicide

Nuapada: The spate in the incidence of farmers’ suicide in Orissa went up further following the suicide of another farmer in Nuapada district on Monday.

The deceased, identified as Kusha Dhwaja Majhi of Tarbod village committed suicide by hanging himself in his house.

The suicide of Majhi was a case of poverty and large amount of loan from fellow villagers which drove him to take this extreme step, family sources said.

The incident took place in the absence of Jema Majhi, wife of the deceased had gone to her mother’s house a couple of days ago.

According to reports, Majhi had been cultivating three acres of land of fellow villager Amar Pradhan.

The paddy that was grown in the said land was damaged due to drought in the area.
Majhi had taken large loans from more than six persons in the village for cultivation.

The dire condition of the crop had always been a cause of concern for the family.

He had borrowed some rice the previous night to cook, informed Majhi’s neighbour S Majhi.

The family neither had cash savings nor foodgrain in the house.

Following the incident, former Nuapada BJP MLA Basanta Panda has demanded a compensation of Rs five lakh to Majhi’s family.

The state has a mandate to provide livelihood to the people and since the state has failed in its duty, it should immediately pay a compensation of Rs five lakh to the family, he pointed out.

Taking a dig at the state government, president of the Nuapada district Congress Bhanu Prakash Joshi said that the failure of the state’s social security schemes can be gauged from the fact that there has been no NREGA work in the village in the last one year.

Though the Centre pumps in unlimited amount of money under NREGA, the state mechanism has completely failed to utilize such funds to provide livelihood to the people, he added.

Though Majhi was allotted an Indira Awas House, his inability to arrange initial money to open a bank account had stalled the entire process.