File report on farmer suicides in 4 weeks: OHRC to Odisha Govt

The Odisha Human Rights Commission (OHRC) today asked the state government to enquire and report it on allegations of farmer suicides within four weeks.
The order was passed by OHRC's working chairman Justice B K Mishra while hearing a petition on farmer suicides out of frustration due to crop loss.
"Enquire and report the Commission within four weeks," stated an order by the Commission, said an official of OHRC here.
The secretaries of agriculture and revenue and disaster management departments have been told to enquire into the cases of alleged farmer suicides due to debt burden and crop loss, the official said.

The rights panel's order to the state government came on the day when two farmers alleged committed suicide due to debt burden after crop loss owing to deficient rainfall this monsoon.
A reports from Nuapada district said Dharamudhara Ada, a cotton farmer of Khiramala village under Boden police station limits committed suicide after consuming pesticides on his cotton field this morning.

His family members claimed Ada was under severe mental stress following massive crop loss.
In another incident, Magasira Majhi, a farmer of Tukula village of Bhatli block in Bargarh district, committed suicide after sustaining massive loss of paddy crops.

Earlier, five such cases were brought to the notice of the rights panel by social activists, the official said.