Chhattisgarh: Farmer ends life over debt burden; BJP-Cong spar on loan waiver

Narayanpur, Dec 16 (PTI) A 55-year-old farmer allegedly committed suicide in a village in Chhattisgarh’s tribal-dominated Narayanpur district, officials said on Saturday.

His family members and locals claimed he was upset due to debt burden and poor crop yield.

Heeru Badhai of Kukdajhor village consumed pesticide at his farm on December 12 and died in the district hospital in Narayanpur the next day, a police official here said.

No suicide note was found at the spot and a probe is underway after registering of an accidental death report, he added.

Yogeshwar Badhai, the deceased’s son, told PTI his family own around 9 acres of land and a loan of Rs 1,12,852 was taken from Zila Sahkari Bank (district cooperative bank) for the ongoing Kharif crop season.

“A notice was received recently to clear the loan worth Rs 1.24 lakh (including the interest) and father was worried. Crop production was also not good this year, which added to his worry,” he said.

“My father used to express concern about the loan repayment. He was also worried about raising funds for my wedding. On the day of incident, father was alone at the farm while we had returned home to have our meals. On finding him vomiting we rushed him to the hospital where he died the next day,” Yogeshwar said.

Other residents said the deceased was living in the village of his in-laws and had taken the loan in the name of his mother-in-law.

Terming the incident as tragic, Chhattisgarh Congress chief Deepak Baij claimed the BJP, which won the recent Assembly polls, had promised to waive farm loans of upto Rs 2 lakh but were now backtracking on it.

However, Narayanpur BJP MLA Kedar Kashyap said his party had not promised farm loan waiver in its Assembly poll manifesto.

The man who has committed suicide didn’t own land and investigation is underway to ascertain why he took this extreme step, Kashyap said.

In the Assembly polls held on November 7 and 17, the BJP unseated the Bhupesh Baghel government of the Congress by winning 54 seats in the 90-member House.