Kartikram Ratre, a farmer in Korba district of Chhattisgarh, committed suicide last Wednesday at a district administration office after failing to secure compensation for the land he had given to a private company to set up a power plant.
The Korba district administration had acquired 15 acres of land from Ratre in Tilkeja village for Lanco Amarkantak Power — an entity of Lanco Power Limited. The company is setting up a major power plant in the district.
It was decided that the farmer would get a sum of Rs 32 lakh for the land, but the administration failed to pay him the amount, said senior Congress legislator, Dharamjit Singh, who raised the issue in the state legislative assembly. When Ratre’s efforts to secure the compensation failed, he consumed poison in the Tehsil office on Wednesday, Singh said.
The opposition legislator claimed the victim had left a suicide note saying he was taking the extreme step of ending life after failing to get the compensation. Ratre had been running from pillar to post in the district and tehsil offices but failed to secure justice.
Former chief minister Ajit Jogi demanded the state government should register an offence against the district administration official and Lanco management for driving the farmer to suicide. The construction work of power plant of Lanco had been completed but the farmer had not been paid the compensation, he added.
The leader of opposition, Ravindra Choubey, charged that the government was being unduly favourable to the industries in acquiring land for projects. Agriculture department records say acreage has decreased by four per cent — this underlines that the government is giving agriculture land to private companies, Choubey said.
The opposition members also demanded that the state government should come out with a statement on Ratre’s suicide, which took place inside a government office. “We were expecting that the government will give a suo-moto statement, but it did not,” Choubey said, adding the opposition demanded a detailed statement from the government.
The state government, however, did not give any statement on the issue. Lanco Power Limited, too, did not comment on the issue.
