Farmer commits suicide:Naveen stays loan recovery, orders inquiry

Bhubaneswar, Feb 04 (UNI) Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today ordered suspension of recovery of agriculture loan by a Cooperative Society in Jajpur district till an inquiry was completed on the loan sanctioned by the society.

The Chief Minister asked the state Agriculture Production Commissioner to probe into the loan sanctioned by Sujanpur Cooperative Society and submit report within one month after a 60 year old farmer committed suicide near the Cooperative Society on January 30 last.

Mr Patnaik who had asked the Jajpur district collector to investigate into the suicide of the farmer, today directed the authority to initiate criminal case against the Secretary of the Cooperative Society on the basis of the findings of the report submitted by the collector.

According to a report, Nabaghan Sahu of Raghunathpur village had taken a loan of Rs 1800 from the Sujanpur Cooperative Society in the 1990s and had repaid the loan.

But on January 19 last he received a red notice from the Society to repay an outstanding loan amounting to Rs 8505 by January 30 or face a criminal action.

Shocked and upset over such a ''faulty'' notice, the farmer ran from pillar to post to clarify that he had already paid the loan long back and the amount has been wrongly credited in his name.

He finally decided to end his life as the Bank did not pay any heed to his plea and threatened to take action against him.

UNI DP BA PJ GC2207