The Agriculture Ministry has formed a four-member panel to probe the deaths of two farmers in Rajshahi, who allegedly ended their lives for not getting irrigation water for their land.
The committee has been asked to submit its report within a week, the Ministry said in a notification.
Md Abu Jubayer Hossain Bablu, a joint secretary of the ministry, has been made the convenor of the committee while Abdul Jalil, commissioner and magistrate of Rajshahi district, Md Sazzad Hossain, executive engineer of Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC), Natore, and Md Shamsher Ali, executive engineer, Barind Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA), Naogao, are its other members.
As per the notification, the committee was formed based on two reports published by two media outlets on March 24 and 27, respectively.
On March 24, Rabi Marandi, 32, a Santal community member of Nimghatu village in Godagari upazila, and his cousin Abhinath, 30, consumed poison in front of Shakhawat Hossain, a deep tubewell operator of the Barind Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA).
They took the decision out of anger "as Shakhawat was not giving them a serial number for a long time to get irrigation water supplied to their fields in Iswarpur", according to their family.
Abhinath died around 9pm after reaching home on March 24, while Rabi died two days later at Rajshahi Medical College and Hospital (RMCH).
Brigadier General Shamim Yazdani, director of RMCH, confirmed both the brothers died from consumption of poison.
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