officer face was blackened over faulty report on farmer's suicide

In connection with the suicide of the farmers in Jharsuguda and Sambalpur in last week, enraged BJP workers manhandled and thrashed Sambalpur deputy director of Agriculture Mr. DC Pal on Monday at Gangadhar Mandap, here just minutes before inauguration of Krusak Mela-2009 where he was invited as a guest. The officer was made to walk on the street after painting black on his face. The officer was than rescued by the police at collector office. However no case was register by the police till evening in absent of any complaint from the officer. The mela which was continued with out any inauguration as all other dignitaries and senior government officers including collector and RDC did not turn up to the spot after the incident.

“We rescued him after he was taken to the collector office premises. When we got the information about the incident it was all over. However we prevented the mob at Gangadhar Mandap when they were creating vandalism to close the mela”, SDPO (Sambalpur) Dilip Kumar Deo told. However he denied of receiving any complaint from the officer about the incident. We are waiting for the complaint. We will investigate the issue once we receive complaint from the victim officer”, Mr. Deo added.

Sources said, the deputy director was entrusted by the government to submit a report on the suicidal deaths of two farmers who died in Jharsuguda on 4^th Oct and in Sambalpur on 7^th October. The officer with out visiting the spots submitted reports where he citied the cause as ‘family dispute’.

“The DDA has submitted reports to the government citing deaths of farmers have no relation with the crop loss or agriculture loan. When every one knows that destruction of paddy is due to poor rain fall and attack of Leda poka, the officer misleads government by submitting false report just sitting in his office. So in order to teach him a lesson we did it”, a BJP worker told.

Incidentally a team of BJP high level leaders led by state president Suresh Pujari visited the Khapsadea village (Sambalpur district) on Monday where a farmer had committed suicide on 7^th October. The senior party leaders including Kharabela Swain, Monmohan Samal, Dharmendra Pradhan and Surendra Lath while expressing their anguish over the incident blamed the government for not showing any sympathetic attitude towards the farmers of the region. “Every one knows that this time heavy crop damage has occurred due to poor rainfall and attack insects. But if you misled the fact than you have to pay the price”, BJP president Suresh Pujari told signaling on the incident of Deputy Director of Agriculture. “However we do not approve the incident occurred in Sambalpur but these types of incidents are inevitable if government continues to neglect the agriculture sector” Pujari added.