Farmer's suicide not due to crop failure:Minister

Bhubaneswar, Nov 15 (UNI) Orissa Agriculture Minister S N Nayak today denied that a farmer committed suicide in a remote village in Bolangir district due to crop failure as reported in a section of the press.

Making a statement in the Assembly, Mr Nayak said the government had asked the Revenue Divisional Commissioner (Northen Range) and the Bolangir District Collector to conduct an inquiry into the cause of the suicide by one Gangaram Nag(22) of Katapali village under Belpada block of the district.

The Minister said as per the inquiry report Gangaram's marriage was fixed but later the bride's family rejected the proposal saying that he was a partially blind and weak personality.

The bride's family on the other hand, negotiated the marriage with Gangaram's younger brother after his father agreed to the proposal. This upset Gangaram who out of frustration consumed poison and committed suicide.

The Agriculture Minister said Gangaram's family had taken a loan of Rs 2500 from a trader to purchase fertilizers and repaid Rs 2000 to the trader.

Congress member Satya Bhusan Sahoo demanded either a high-level administrative inquiry or a judicial inquiry into the incident.

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