Burdwan, West Bengal:
The body of a middle-aged man was found hanging from a tree in a village in Burdwan district
today with family members alleging that failure to receive timely payment under the MNREGA scheme had forced the victim to commit suicide.
Villagers of Tuilakchandpur found the body of Biplab Samaddar (58) hanging from a tree and informed the Kanksha police station this morning, a police officer said.
According to the complaint lodged with the Kanksha police station, the deceased's son Arindam Samaddar (16) said abject penury could have forced his father to take the extreme step.
He said his father had worked for 26 days under the 100 day scheme but had not received payment and was in a depressed state of mind.
The body had been sent for postmortem to the Burdwan Medical College and Hospital.
Durgapur Sub-divisional officer Kasturi Sengputa however, denied that the victim had not been paid his dues under MNREGA and said he had worked for three days and had been paid accordingly.
Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress Panchayat member Ajay Majumdar alleged that the Centre was not giving money to the state under the MNREGA scheme and the party was agitating for
it.