Bhadrak: A farmer allegedly made an attempt to commit suicide by drinking poison inside a cooperative society after a miller rejected his paddy citing dampness in the crop at Sabaranga panchayat in Bhadrak district Friday.
Meanwhile, Collector Gynarnjan Das has ordered a probe into the incident. The farmer was treated at a private clinic and later shifted to the district headquarters hospital when his condition deteriorated, it was learnt.
The Collector, sub-collector Sucharu Bal and tehsildar Pradip Sahu visited the hospital and enquired about the health of the farmer Harmohan Barik (45).
Reports said Barik had come to the cooperative society to sell of his 45 sacks of paddy. As suggested by the society, he came to a miller, but the latter turned him away citing 22 per cent dampness in the paddy. Barik was mentally upset and came to the cooperative society. He told his problem to the secretary of the society and drank poison.
Some farmers saw him and immediately rushed him to a private clinic.
A tram of officials started an investigation into the mater. They came to Barik’s house and gauged the dampness in the paddy that was rejected by the miller.
This incident has come amid wide allegations that millers had been harassing farmers on the grounds of damp content in paddy.
PNN