Fact finding team demands probe into farmers suicide in Orissa

Bhubaneswar, May 10 (UNI) A fact finding team comprising leaders of five organisations today demanded a high level probe into suicide of farmers in Orissa and a change in the agriculture policy for their benefit.

The team had gone to Mallickmunda village in Bolangir district for an on-the-spot investigation of the reasons for the suicides.

The findings showed that the farmers had incurred heavy loss in BT Cotton cultivation.

The team alleged that the suicide of Arkur Sahoo and his two daughters was related to the heavy loss suffered and huge loan incurred by his family in the cotton cultivation.

The team, comprising Lok Shakti Abhijan president Prafulla Samantra, Prachi Chasimeli president Natabar Sharanghi, Nagarika Adhikar Karmi leader Chitta Ranjan Mohanty, Sambalpur Zilla Krushak Surakhta Samittee president Murari Purohit and Sambalpur Zilla Pani Panchayat Committee chairman M Govinda, in a joint statement here accused the state government of forcing the farmers to adopt commercial farming at the behest of private companies.

Stating that the agricultural land in the drought prone Bolangir district was not ideal for BT cotton cultivation,they demanded immediate scrapping of cotton cultivation and allowing the farmers to return to traditional farming.

They demanded that the agriculture extension officers who had supplied spurious seeds to the farmers should be arrested and booked under criminal cases.

The team urged the state government to provide adequate compensation to the families of the farmers who had committed suicide and take all steps to prevent further deaths.

It demanded a high level inquiry into the agricultural land of the farmers taken by the private companies in the guise of bio-diesel project in Western Orissa,arrest of the middlemen and company officials involved in the shady deal and return of land to the farmers to undertake traditional farming.

UNI