Bant: The administration Thursday started a probe into the alleged suicide of a debt-hit farmer at Pandado under Pandapada police limits in Bhadrak district Wednesday.
Officials reached the bereaved family of Gayadhar Das (45). He was the sole breadwinner of his family comprising his wife and three daughters.
Tehsildar Fakir Charan Parida, BDO Rebika Bilung, sub-registrar of cooperative societies Laxmidhar Rout, assistant registrar Swatibala Mohapatra, assistant agriculture officer Tusharkant Pati and some revenue officials started an investigation into the matter.
They provided Rs 10,000 as assistance from the District Red Cross Fund to the family.
However, seeking more compensation for the family, the villagers squatted before the vehicle of the BDO and the tehsildar.
Officials held talks with the locals and some Congress leaders, assuring them that help to the family will be provided from the National Family Welfare Scheme.
The BDO said a joint investigation report will be submitted to the state government. Panchayat executive officer Purnachandra Sahu provided Rs 2,000 under the Harishchandra Yojana to the family.
According to Gayadhar’s wife Anupama, Gayadhar had cultivated 10 acres of land of four farmers on a sharecropping basis. He had taken a loan of Rs 70,000 from the Purusandhapur Cooperative Society.
But crop production had come down due to pest attack. He failed to pay back the loan and was under stress, which ultimately led him to suicide, Anupama lamented.
Police seized the body and sent it to the district headquarters hospital for post-mortem.
The police registered a case of unnatural death and started an investigation. Gayadhar’s body, after post-mortem, was handed over to the family. His mortal remains were cremated in the afternoon.
PNN