Farmers took extreme step as state govt failed to help: BJP

Holding the BJD regime “responsible” for unabated suicide by farmers in Odisha, BJP on Sunday said the distressed peasants were forced to take the extreme step as the state government “failed” to provide them with necessary assistance. “The farmers had taken short-term loans of varying amounts from different sources. However, they faced crop failure due to drought and failed to recover the money they 

had put in,” BJP’s Odisha in-charge Arun Singh told reporters.

Hit hard by crop failure and debt burden, the farmers were forced to commit suicide in the absence of any help from the state government, he alleged. Though the state government had announced a drought package, “no assistance” had been provided to the affected farmers so far, which worsened their miseries, Singh said.