Farmer commits suicide in Mahasamund district of Chhattisgarh; second incident in last four days

Raipur: A farmer committed suicide in Chhattisgarh’s Mahasamund district on Saturday, police said. This is the second farmer suicide in the district in the last four days. [caption id=“attachment_3707151” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] Hiradhar Nishad (55) drank pesticide in his field at Jamgaon village within the Bagbahara police station limits, police said, adding that there was no suicide note. Nishad’s wife claimed that mounting debt and power bills was the reason for the suicide, but the administration said this did not seem to be the case. “Preliminary investigation revealed that he had no debt burden,” district collector Himshikhar Gupta told PTI. Nishad owned 6.5 acres of land, and duly repaid loans taken from a local cooperative society every year, said the collector. Nor did he have outstanding electricity dues, said the collector, adding “prima facie it does not appear that he was under any debt burden that could have forced him to take the extreme step”. But Nishad’s wife Mantori Bai said her husband was worried due to high electricity bills and loans taken from bank and local lenders. “He kept saying how he was going to pay off the debts. He was also worried over high electricity bills of tubewell pump. This month power bill was Rs 3,000 and last month it was Rs 2,000,” she said. On 22 June, a tribal farmer, Manthir Singh Yadav (55), allegedly committed suicide at Mokha village in the district.