Potato farmer ends life in Agra, officials rule out debt angle

AGRA : A farmer hanged himself at Meerpura village in Agra district’s Shamshadabad area as his potato crop yield was below expectation and he was in debt, his family alleged on Tuesday.

The district administration got the matter probed and denied that the suicide was due to poor crop yield or the pressure to repay loan.

Additional district magistrate Finance Rakesh Kumar Malpani said: “The subdivisional magistrate (SDM)

Fatehabad got the inquiry conducted by Fatehabad tehsildar who, in his report, stated that death of Kanchan Singh (the farmer) was because of unknown reasons. There was no reason to say the potato crop was affected by a natural calamity.” The news agency ANI quoted SDM Prathmesh Kumar as saying, “According to our investigation, the farmer committed suicide due to some personal problems or some family enmity, it was not related to debt or potato produce.”

People close to the family said Kanchan Singh had five bigha land on which he grew potato. Disappointed over a low yield, he also felt the pressure of having repay loan to banks, they said.

His son, who found him hanging in the farm on Monday, was quoted by ANI as saying, “My father owed Rs 5 lakh to the bank and Rs 2 lakhs to lenders. Next month, my sister was supposed to get married, don’t know what to do. I appeal to the government to help us.”

Police reached the village but family members refused to get post-mortem done and sought financial aid as the farmer had five children, local people said.

Agra is part of UP’s potato belt.UP is India’s top potato growing state with about 35% of the national output.