1,000 are of cholera in Nadia
KRISHNAGAR, JUNE 2. – The death toll in the cholera epidemic raging in Nadia district has exceeded 1,000 with reports of death still coming in, says PTI.
More than 70 bodies have been found along Krishnanagar-Karimpur-Shikarpur road, some of them half burnt and a few half buried. The 95-kilometer road is full of evacuees.
According to the District Chief Medical Officer of Health, another 1200 mostly evacuees of different camps in the district were now being treated in different hospitals and health centers for the disease.
Reeling under the unprecedented pressure of evacuees coming from Bangladesh the district particularly its border towns of Shikarpur and Karipur have been mainly bearing the brunt of this dreadful disease, showing phenomenal increase everyday and posing a threat even to the local population.
While 361died of the disease in Shikarpur, Karimpur has so far accounted for 120 deaths. The important towns of Ranaghat and Krishnanagar have slowly been setting into the grip of cholera. Already 40 deaths have been reported from Ranaghat.
The official figure of the total number of evacuees till Wednesday afternoon was 3,466,625 Of them 1,933,400 are staying at different reception centers and the rest with their friends and relatives. The actual figure is much more as a good number of evacuees have not registered their names. It may be mentioned in this connection that the total number of refugees who have come from East Pakistan to West Bengal since partition was close to 5,000,000.
Reports received at the Secretariat from different districts stated that so far 567 persons had died in different camps.
Mr. Ananda Mohon Biswas Minister of State. Relief and Rehabilitation said that so far Rs. 4.57 crores had been received from the Center for the evacuees. Of this amount Rs. 298.36 lakhs had been spent. About Rs. 146.56 lakhs would be spent to set up camps for them at Birbhum. Midnapore and Bankura.
Our Dinhata correspondent said According to the SDO Dinhata. 206,000 evacuees have been registered at Dinhata to date. Non-official estimates put the number at more than 250,000.
Meanwhile Canada has pledged aid totalling $2 million (Rs. 1.5 crores) for Bangladesh refugees in India bringing the total multilateral aid promised so far to $ 11.2 million. a UN spokesman announced yesterday, Reuter adds.
Canada’s aid will be in the form of food, medicines and cash. The World Food Programme will also ship an additional $2 million worth of food for the refugees, the spokesman added.
A UN spokesman yesterday said the UNHCR’s Director of Operations Mr. Thomas Jamieson of Britain, would shortly be leaving for New Delhi.
The UN also announced that Mr. Ismat Kittani of Iraq, the UN’s Assistant Secretary-General for inter-agency affairs, would arrive in Islamabad on Thursday to discuss with Pakistani Government officials “the modalities of international humanitarian assistance” to the inhabitants of East Bengal.
The Federal Republic of Germany has announced the first contribution of one million marks.
Reference: Hindustan Standard, 03.06.1971