One more farmer commits suicide; toll reaches 12 in West Bengal

BURDWAN: A young graduate engineer-turned farmer allegedly committed suicide in Burdwan district as his potato crop failed to earn him profit, taking the number of farmer suicides in West Bengal this year to 12.

Police have confirmed the death of 27-year-old Probin Kumar Laha at his home in Memari.

Probin was a graduate mechanical engineer from the prestigious Jadavpur University. However, unable to get a job, he had turned a farmer and had grown potato in five bighas of land, his father Gangadhar Laha, who is a retired school teacher said.

But with the price of the tuber plummeting in the state spurred by a bumper harvest this year, Probin had become depressed and hanged himself in his room last night before dinner.

He was rushed to the hospital where doctors declared him brought dead, the father said.

Memari block development officer Ranu Mondal said he was looking into the incident.

With this death, the toll of farmer suicides rose to 12 in the state, nine of them in Burdwan district in about a month. Two other such incidents took place in Malda and one in Jalpaiguri district.