Farmer suicide

Sambalpur: A 50-year-old farmer, Mantosh Haripal, from Raksha village in Barpali block of Bargarh district allegedly committed suicide by consuming pesticide due to crop loss and loan burden. Mantosh consumed the pesticide on Saturday and was rushed to the hospital. He died in the wee hours of Sunday.

Fire death

Baripada: A 45-year-old woman was burnt alive after her house caught fire on Saturday evening. The deceased, Basanti Singh from Moroda, was charred to death.

Jumbo scare

Balasore: The villagers near Nilagiri are living in fear as a tusker is running amok and damaging houses and crops. The elephant has damaged 20 houses.

BJP unit polls

Bhubaneswar: The organisational election of the BJP’s state unit is expected to be over by the second week of January, the  party’s national general secretary in-charge of Odisha, Arun Singh, said on Sunday. Singh was in the city to attend a consultative meeting.    

Traffic drive

Bhubaneswar: Police officials and the transport department on Sunday started a special drive in Bhubaneswar to enforce road safety rules. Violators would be intercepted and first-time violators would be issued challans.