An elderly cancer-stricken ration dealer in Purulia who wanted to surrender his licence last week committed suicide on Friday night allegedly because of stress related to the large-scale foodgrain distribution during the lockdown.

Bholanath Ray, 62, took the extreme step at a time there have been protests in several parts of the state over the way the public distribution system has been working during the pandemic, with people alleging hoarding and price manipulation by sections of ration dealers.

Ray, a resident of Rajnowagarh village, was found hanging from the pulley of his house well on Saturday, prompting his family to allege pressure on dealers during the lockdown.

“My husband had been under a lot of stress after he recently received a huge quantity of ration for distribution. He had been saying the work pressure would kill him. I had tried to console him but in vain,” Ray’s wife Kamala said.

“He feared that the lockdown would continue and the pressure would remain. He was also apprehending legal action if he erred in his duty,” Kamala added.

Ray is a cancer patient but had been doing fine and was in remission for the past couple of years.

Sources said Ray, who catered to nearly 1,400 ration-card holders, had received 130 quintals of grains this week, up from the usual quantity of 50 quintals.

Kamala said Ray had got spooked by reports of arrests of ration dealers. “He used to say that he wouldn’t survive jail at this age,” she said.

Purulia district magistrate Rahul Majumder said: “The distribution at the dealer’s shop had been smooth, and there was no problem with his ration shop at all.”

In Calcutta, home secretary Alapan Bandopadhyaya said on Saturday that troubles over the PDS had been sporadic and that the state government had taken stern measures on complaints against errant ration dealers.

He said 73 per cent of the beneficiaries had withdrawn their allotment for the month within the first week of May. He added that 68 per cent of the foodgrains supposed to be distributed throughout the month had been withdrawn within this period.

Kerala tragedy

A 22-year-old migrant labourer from Murshidabad’s Domkal hanged himself on Saturday morning near the brick kiln in Kerala’s Ernakulam where he had been stranded with 34 others since the beginning of the lockdown.

Sources said Asit Iqbal Mondal, from Siropara, had been especially distraught after he and his fellow workers missed the Behrampore-bound train that left Ernakulam on Monday.