Bhubaneswar, March 23: The Opposition today expressed concern over the growing incidence of suicide by farmers allegedly due to government apathy.

“Reports of farmers’ suicide are pouring in from various parts of the state even as the government has been maintaining that the peasants are ending their lives not due to indebtedness, but for other reasons,” said Congress MLA Sadhu Nepak from Bargarh district. Bargarh is known as “rice bowl” of Orissa.

Recently, one Surendra Nayak, a farmer, had allegedly committed suicide by consuming pesticides after being unable to bear the burden of loan following crop failure, said Debi Prasanna Chand, Congress MLA from Balasore district.

Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh said that the farmers were being forced to commit suicide after being unable to repay the loan following crop failures.

The farmers were forced to borrow loan from the micro-credit institutions and private moneylenders at exorbitant rate of interest as the cooperative credit system had collapsed here, said Singh.

Compensation was not being paid to the farmers who had been sustaining crop loss due to recurrent natural calamities, said Singh.

He pointed out that the affected farmers were yet to get compensation package even as the chief minister had announced that it would be disbursed by February first week.

Moreover, their dues against the paddy purchased from them by various government agencies and cooperative societies had also been pending for months, said Singh.

The farmers were being forced to sell their remaining paddy stock to the rice millers at throw away prices, he said.

“It’s high time that the government should ensure that the farmers get remunerative price and receive their payment in time,” Singh said.