ALLEPPEY: BJP workers blocked the road with the dead body of G Prasad, the farmer who committed suicide due to debt in Alappuzha. The road is blocked on the Ambalappuzha-Thiruvalla state highway. After the post-mortem at Thiruvalla Taluk Hospital, the ambulance reached here as a funeral procession.

The road blockade is being led by BJP National Executive Member PK Krishnadas and District President MV Gopakumar. The blockade is by parking the ambulance across the road. This is the second farmer suicide in Alappuzha in the last six months. The protest is demanding that the government should give an answer.

The suicide victim is Prasad (55), a native of Thakazhi and district president of Kisan Sangh. He had approached a bank for a loan for agricultural purposes. However, the loan was not sanctioned due to PRS loan arrears. Depressed by this, Prasad took his own life. Prasad committed suicide after calling the district secretary of the Kisan Sangh and telling him about his problems. An audio recording of him saying that he was a failed farmer and had farmed paddy on several acres of land and given it to the government had come out.

'The government did not give us money. I asked for a loan. The bank said they would not give the loan because of PRS arrears. What can I say, I have failed brother, my life has also failed. I stopped drinking twenty years ago but started again. I am a loser, you must fight for me. I gave my paddy to the government, now I am a debtor. There is no other way to hold on', Prasad says on the phone