Evacuee dispersal a remote possibility
By A Staff Reporter, that it will not be possible to remove any sizeable portion of the evacuees outside West Bengal became evident on Tuesday, when West Bengal Ministers admitted that only 5,000 out of a little more than 4.2 million Bangladesh evacuees had been dispensed so far. At present on an average two to three railway specials carrying at best 1,000 evacuees are leaving West Bengal for Mana transit camp daily.
A senior official said that about 1.2 million evacuees would be housed in Central transit camps most of which would be established inside West Bengal. He, however, could not say what would happen to the rest.
He said that the State Government would discuss the entire problem with the Center before dispersal starts on a large-scale. The Chief Minister, Mr. Ajoy Mukherjee expressed the doubt before reporters that the “Center might not be able to take all evacuees”. He was happy that the Center had agreed to bear all the financial and technical burden of the problem.
The Chairman of the Cabinet sub-committee on evacuees, Dr. Zainai Abedin, said that the, State Government had asked the Center to arrange for 10 special trains and 500 buses daily beside transport planes. The outcome has not been effective as the Center is yet to decide on a dispersal plan.
Meanwhile, the Chief Secretary and the Relief Commissioner have not yet left for New Delhi with the “dispersal plan” which they would discuss with the Central Relief. Home and Railway Ministry officials. An official spokesman said on Tuesday that no reply had yet been received from Delhi in regard to the draft plan sent earlier.
The State Government has so far committed itself to an expenditure of Rs. 24 crones on the evacuees. From the Centre it has so far been for Rs. 4.37 crores.
The Health Minister and the PWD Minister will visit North Bengal tomorrow to select sites for camps inside West Bengal.
Mr. Santosh Roy, P.W.D. Minister, who is a member of the three-man Cabinet subcommittee to tackle the evacuee problem, said that most of the evacuees were unwilling to leave West Bengal. Quite a good number of them were sent to Howrah station the other day to go to Maria camp in Madhya Pradesh by train, refused to leave West Bengal and returned to their respective camps without the knowledge of the department concerned.
Mr. Roy pointed out that it would take a long time to send such a huge number of people by trains to the other States. Moreover, most of the States would not be able to make arrangements for their accommodation at a very short notice.
All these points were discussed by him with the Finance Minister, Mr. Tarunkanti Ghose at Writers’ Buildings for four hours. There was no solution at the end of the meeting.
Mr. Roy said that he along with the Finance Minister, Mr. Ghose, the Health Minister, Dr. Abedin, and some high officials would soon go to Delhi to discuss the problem again with the Center. Prior to that they would visit some camps in North Bengal and 24 Parganas.
Mr. Roy said that at best 1.2 million evacuees could be accommodated in West Bengal if the abandoned aerodromes of the Defense Department in this State and other vacant lands of the Center were made available.
Reports received from other sources indicate that there is no coordination between the State Government and the Relief Department of the Government of India. which has opened an office in Calcutta. That was the reason why medicines and other equipment received from a foreign country were not released on Monday from Dum Dum.
The Central Government has issued a circular stating that relief consignment from abroad should be delivered to its Relief Department and not to the State Government. The Chief Secretary is reported to have requested the officers of the department to make immediate arrangements for taking delivery of the consignment.
The West Bengal Government so far opened 400 camps all over the State. A few big camps are being set up at Bankura, Coochbehar, Nadia, Birbhum and Midnaporre districts. The work is likely to be completed by the end of the current month when the evacuees would be shifted to these camps.
The Andhra Pradesh Rehabilitation Minister, Mr. G. Sanjiva Reddy, said at Hyderabad that his Government had agreed to take 5,000 evacuees from Bangladesh.
The Center in its latest, telegraphic communication to the State had suggested that Andhra Pradesh should take a hundred thousand evacuees.
Mr. Sanjiva Reddy, after consulting the Chief Minister, Mr. Brahmanada Reddy on Tuesday evening said it was felt that it would be difficult for the State, to receive a hundred thousand evacuees as the State was already burdened with the task of resettling Burma evacuees.
The 50,000 Bangladesh evacuees would be housed in Adilabad and Nellore districts.
The entire expenditure on the two camps would be met by the center.
The Meghalaya Government is likely to tell Mrs. Gandhi on her upcoming visit to the State that evacuee influx to the autonomous State had reached a saturation point and so to be removed elsewhere adds UNI for shillong.
A memorandum enlisting the difficulties the Hill State was experiencing in arranging food. water supply and medical facility to 250,000 evacuees in the excommunicated border areas of Khasi and Jaintia Hills, was likely to be submitted to the Prime Minister.
In Madras, the Tamil Nadu Minister for Rehabilitation, Mrs. Sathiarani Mother, told newsmen on Tuesday that the Tamil Nadu Government is unable to accommodate the evacuees from Bangladesh as it was already burdened by the problem of rehabilitating repatrites from Ceylon and Burma.
Mrs. Muther said a Center had asked the State Government last month whether it could accommodate a batch of evacuees from Bangladesh.
She said the manager of a floating exhibition now in the city had offered medicines and clothing worth Rs. 1 lakh for the Bangladesh evacuees. The State Government was arranging for their despatch to the West Bengal Government.
Meanwhile, the State Government received information that some Pakistani agents are trying to foment communal tension in the border region. On the other hand, the body Set up by the State police to screen the evacuees from Bangladesh is not being able to function properly because of the vastness of the problem, an official spokesman said. He said that quite a few of the spies had already been arrested.
The Health Minister, Dr. Abedin, appealed to the people of West Bengal on Tuesday to maintain communal harmony.
Mr. Rajoswara Rao, General Secretary of the CPI said in a statement that tension was developing between the evacuees and local population and there was every danger of communal riots breaking out on a wide scale. Communal and other disruptive elements were taking advantage of the dangerous situation for their own nefarious political ends. “The solution of this serious problem is beyond the capacity of the Government of West Bengal. This is the problem of the entire country and it can only be tackled if the entire country takes it up with all the seriousness it deserves. The caillou attitude of the Central Government in this matter is unpardonable. On behalf of the Communist Party of India, 1 urged upon the Prime Minister and the Government of India to put this problem on emergency footing. Not only that it must give all necessary help but it should also compel every State Governments to give all necessary help in this matter,” he said.
He urged upon the Union Government to send the necessary food, medicines and tents for saving the Bangladesh evacuees, to take arrangements for the reception of the evacuees and temporarily accommodate food and other necessities in other States.
In an appeal to the citizens of Calcutta for contribution to the Mayor’s Relief Fund, the Mayor Mr. Shyam Sundar Gupta said. “Mayor’s Relief Fund is organizing a few medical camps for providing medical relief which is so vitally essential at this hour. But enough fund is necessary to continue the work for sometime.”
Reference: Hindustan Standard, 08.06.1971