A field in Raiganj covered with hailstones a day after the storm on April 2 that destroyed the crops of Bhuben Barman. File picture

Raiganj, April 22: A debt-ridden farmer committed suicide in a North Dinajpur village after his crops were destroyed by a hailstorm and local panchayat functionaries allegedly told him that no compensation would be forthcoming because the dates of the rural polls had been announced.

Bhuben Barman, 40, of Maharaja consumed pesticide yesterday while his wife, son and daughter were away. His family said Bhuben had been depressed ever since the local leaders told him that the government could not compensate him immediately because the election commission’s model code of conduct for the rural polls was already in place.

Bhuben’s son Sukhen said the family had been neck-deep in debt. “We owned 5 bighas (1.5 acres) of land, but my father sold two bighas to get my elder sister married a year ago. This year, he borrowed Rs 25,000 from a local moneylender by mortgaging the rest of the land and planted wheat and corn on it,” Sukhen said.

The wheat was almost ready for harvest and the corn stalks were coming up well when the hailstorm struck on April 2. “The wheat was completely damaged and the corn stalks were buried under the hailstones,” Sukhen said.

Bhuben tried his best to nurture the corn plants back to life, but the baby corn fell off and the crop was wasted. Sukhen said soon after the storm, employees from the panchayat department came and assessed the damage. They told villagers who had lost their crops that they would be compensated soon.

“When the moneylender sent his men to my father to realise the interest, he told them that he would pay up once he received the compensation. But when my father made inquiries at the panchayat office, he was told that the money would not come before the polls (in May),” Sukhen said.

Yesterday evening, Sukhen went to a fair with his friends and his sister, Rima, while his mother was out visiting friends. “At the fair, I was told that father had locked himself in the house and was not responding to calls. We broke in and found him lying on the floor frothing at the mouth with a bottle of pesticide lying alongside. We took him to the district hospital where doctors pronounced him dead,” Sukhen said.

Raiganj block development officer Supriyo Das said the compensation was not linked to the polls.

“We had sent an estimate of the crop damage to the Bengal government although no funds have been released yet. Whoever told the farmer that the compensation could not be paid because of the polls was incorrect,” Das said.

Sukhen said his family was going to lose the land too. “I will have no other alternative but to go to Delhi and work as a day labourer,” he said.