Odisha farmer suicide toll crosses 50

Odisha Channel Bureau Bhubaneswar: The wave of farmer suicides continued in Odisha with two more farmers committing suicide in Balangir and Nabarangpur districts today.While a farmer in Balangir committed suicide by consuming poison, the farmer in Nabarangpur had hanged himself, according to reports.More than 50 farmers, driven to despair by mounting debts and drought, have committed suicide in Odisha during the past few weeks.As many as six farm suicides have been reported from Balangir district alone.The administration in different districts, however, has not been able to complete investigation into any of these alleged suicides by distressed farmers.Despite the family members of the deceased farmers telling the truth to the authorities, the officials concerned are busy working as per the directions of their political masters.Eleven farm suicides were reported during the past three days from districts such as Balangir, Nabarangpur, Keonjhar, Dhenkanal, Bargarh, Bhadrak, Ganjam and Baleswar.Meanwhile, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik interacted with District Collectors of the drought affected districts to find out the condition of the paddy crop in those regions and the measures to be taken by them.Patnaik ordered that water tax of the farmers will be waived for this year in the affected regions.The Chief Minister also directed the Collectors to form teams comprising officials of departments concerned to conduct awareness camps about the special package for the farmers in the affected gram panchayats.Patnaik also asked the Collectors to assess the crop damage in the affected areas and begin payment of agriculture input subsidy by November 10.