Piling debts drive farmer to suicide in Burdwan

BURDWAN: Unable to withstand the pressure of piling debts, a sharecropper took pesticide at Baranagar village under Pandua police station.

Tapan Munda, 42, had allegedly incurred a huge debt in the market and drank pesticide on Thursday. He was rushed to the nearby Memari Block Health Centre where he died in the wee hours on Saturday.

The sharecropper had cultivated boro crops on eight bighas. While some of the crops got infected, the others got damaged on the recent squalls. With mounting pressure from the local mahajans, Tapan committed suicide, alleged his elder brother Swapan Munda.

Tapan was the sole bread winner of the family and is survived by a wife and three children. The body was sent for autopsy to Burdwan Medical College Hospital and later handed over to his family.

Besides cultivating on the eight bighas, Tapan used to work as an agricultural labourer to supplement his income, said family sources. Bulbul mondal, the block agricultural officer of Pandua, said that she has send officials to probe the death.

If Shah Rukh truly wants to become Paschimbanga's brand ambassador as announced by Didi, he could take a leaf out of Amitabh Bachhan's book and help the distressed farmers in Bengal by wiping out their debt.

Amitabh does it Maharashtra.

Their debts normally do not amount to much.

As per Amitabh, it is around Rs 10000/= per farmer.

By contributing about Rs 50/- lakhs, he could save at least five hundred farmers.

And since these actors would be performing a function which should be done by the useless and corrupt Central government, this amount should be deducted from their income for taxation purposes.