A farmer in Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi died after he was made to wait for days at the government's procurement centre to sell his harvest, ANI reported.
On 18 April, Abdul Sattar was told that his grains will be purchased on 2 May at a centre in Mandi Samiti in Amethi. He waited at the centre for the entire say, according to ANI, but his produce was not sold and he went onto to wait through 3 May as well.
At least, only 20-25 quintals of grain was bought by the centre that day, ANI added. This compelled him to stand guard by his grains through the intervening night of 3 and 4 May.
The next morning, when he wasn’t moving at all, is when locals contacted concerned authorities.
The sub-divisional magistrate has said that the cause of Abdul’s death is yet to be ascertained.
We have sent the body for postmortem to identify the cause of death. Matter is being investigated and action will be taken against culprits.Devi Dayal, the sub-divisional magistrate to ANI
However, the family doesn’t want to conduct any post-mortem or probe into his death.
“He had come to the grain market to sell his produce. There were no issues in the evening. He died, and now we want to take him home and bury him,” the deceased’s relative told ANI.
According to the news agency, farmers in the region are under strain since the government’s wheat procurement centre is not buying grains from the farmers, but from middlemen.
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