Kosal Discussion and Development Forum

Farmer suicides in Balangir and Boudh district

November 7, 2009 at 8:54 pm sanjibkarmee Leave a comment

Following is a report from KalingaTimes:

As Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was trying hard to maintain his televised clean image which he had created by his self-devised media management plan, three more farmers allegedly committed suicide in the state on Thursday.

The three suicides were reported from Balangir, Boudh and Cuttack districts, taking the total number of alleged suicides by farmers to 19 during the past four weeks.

The farmers who committed suicides by consuming pesticides were Baldeb Barik of Keseipalli village of Balangir district; Ugrasen Mahananda of Khatkhatia of Boudh district; and Dhanu Champia of Balisamla village near Salepur in Cuttack district.

Initial reports indicated that the three farmers committed suicide as they had lost all hope of a good harvest owing to loss of crop due to prolonged dry spell and pest attack.

Also the loans that they had obtained from banks, cooperative societies and others had driven them to end their lives, reports indicated.

Interestingly, on his return from New Delhi Patnaik claimed that his government was taking up many pro-farmer schemes and was taking a series of measures to improve irrigation facility for the benefit of the farmers.

Patnaik, whose government had been showing more interest to serve the big business houses, was apparently blissfully ignorant that he had been in power since 2000 and had never thought of adding to the state’s irrigation potential all these years.

The farmer suicides were taking place at a time when a discredited Congress and a faction-ridden Bharatiya Janata Party were unable to make it an issue.

The districts from where farmer suicides had reported so far include Nawarangpur, Ganjam, Nuapada, Bolangir, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Balasore and Cuttack

Entry filed under: Agriculture, Agriculture and Irrigation, Farmer Suicide.