Recruitment to Mukti Fouj from camps suggested
From Our Gauhati Office, JULY, 10 – The Swadhin Bangladesh Sahayak Samity of Silchar has raised a new slogan following Mrs. Gandhi’s statement that the Government of India was not going to recognise Bangladesh immediately and that there was also no question of military action.
The slogan is : “Turn every evacuee camp into a training camp for the Mukti Fouj.” The leaders of Bangladesh, to whom obviously this suggestion is made, are also being asked to recruit every willing and able-bodied young man in the evacuee camps as a Mukti Fouj volunteer.
Mr. Tarapada Bhattacharjee, an ex-MLA and now Secretary of the aforesaid Samity, regretted that numerous energetic young men from Bangladesh were now idling away their time in the camps and were becoming listless and indolent. They, like their parents and other near and dear ones, were anxious for the liberation of their land, but did not get an opportunity to contribute their energy towards that end.
Mr. Bhattacharjee, who thought that the Bangladesh leaders should not discriminate between communities in recruiting volunteers for the liberation force, gave an instance of a young evacuee’s urge for joining the Mukti Fouj. He said that one Gopal Das, a sturdy teenager (or, may be, he has entered the rubicon of twenties) of a camp near Silchar, had submitted applications to a number of local officials – from the camp commandant to the Deputy Commissioner – seeking their assistance in getting entry into the fold of Mukti Fouj.
Referring to the total dearth of employment for these young and able evacuees in Assam. Mr. Bhattacharjee observed that this was the only practical way of utilizing these young men with patriotic spirits. And, he feared that unless their energies were harnessed and properly channelised for a democratic cause now, they would either perish or fall into the hands of extremist elements.
Meanwhile, the evacuee problem in Cachar district, Mr. Bhattacharjee said, was gaining new dimensions. Already more than 65,000 fugitives from Bangladesh were living in the camps, besides another 10 to 15 thousand temporarily sheltered by their relatives. And the flow seemed to be incessant with a daily influx now of about 1,000 evacuees on an average.
Almost all the educational institutions in and around Silchar have been turned into evacuee camps, and the District authorities have asked these institutions to extend their summer vacation-for the third time lately-till the penultimate week of July. But, from the trend of migration it seems doubtful if these institutions will be able to resume their classes even after July is out.
New extrants apart, the condition of the evacuees who arrived two or three months back, is still pitiable. Ninety per cent of them came without any extra cloth, without money and any movable property. The Khan army ejected them from their ancestral moorings, but forfeited all their belongings. The army or their charperons in Bangladesh – the Muslim League, the Jamiet and the habitual goondas- are pillagers.
The evacuees get a ration consisting of rice, pulses, mustard oil, etc, but the quantity of the same has recently been reduced. In spite of some evacuees’ plea for cash dole in lieu of ration the authorities have not made any change in the system. The evacuees according to Mr. Bhattacharjee gets a ration worth Rs. 1.10 only per head per day and that also is confined only to the evacuees living in the camps.
The evacuees camps at Silchar do not get any share of the relief materials, including medicines, which come to Assam from abroad or other parts of India. Mr. Bhattacharjee said. Several evacuees recently died of cholera and other diseases, receiving little medical aid due to death of medicines.
Formerly, the same doctors, pharmacists, etc. were recruited on a daily wage basis. But while that system has since been discontinued, the number of local medical staff is also very meager-not compatible with the requirement at least.
Despite availability of educated young men among the evacuees, the personnel employed in the relief work at the camps are drawn from different Government departments. The result is : while these people’s output of work at the camps is negligible, the departmental work suffers due to the depleted strength of the staff.
The Government has taken up the construction of a number of permanent or semipermanent evacuee camps in all the three subdivisions of Cachar. Such camps will accommodate 5,000 to 20,000 evacuees between them. But recently a dispute arose – for which, according to Mr. Bhattacharjee, the work was delayed – over whether the PWD or the Relief and Rehabilitation Department would execute the work. Finally, it was decided that both the departments would share the task.
And, some new and inexperienced contractors being entrusted with the works, there are complaints about bad workmanship and wastage of Government money. The police are stated to be currently investigating some cases of alleged corruption.
Reference: Hindustan Standard, 11.07.1971