India sheltering DPs on temporary basis
BONN, June 11, The Indian Foreign Minister Mr. Swaran Singh said here last night that millions of refugees from Pakistan now in his country were there on a vary temporary basis and would have to go to other countries if conditions were not right for them to return home.
“We can’t keep them. If the international community thinks they cannot go back then let it make arrangements to take them,” he told a press conference after meeting the West German Chancellor Mr. Willy Brandt and the Foreign Minister Mr. Walter Scheel.
Asked if the Indian Government had set a time limit for keeping the refugees he said it had made budgetary provisions to give them “temporary shelter” for six months but the number of refugees on which these provisions were based had already been exceeded.
He said the amount of money originally budgeted might now cover only three or four months. He declined to say whether this meant a definite time limit for the stay of the refugees.
Earlier Mr. Swaran Singh told reporters that he was “very satisfied” with his talks with the German Chancellor and the Foreign Minister.
A statement issued by the German Government Press Office said Mr. Brandt and Mr. Swaran Singh agreed that “in the interest of peace and the persons affected early solution is required to the problem which gave rise to the present situation.”
Indian sources said this statement could be regarded as support for the Indian view that the authorities in Pakistan should cease military activity against East Bengal and start negotiating with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s independence seeking Awami League which won a massive electoral victory.
Mr. Swaran Singh who flew in here from Moscow on Wednesday on the second leg of his six-nation European tour told reporters that the main aim of his trip was to mobilize international opinion and force Pakistan to change its “repressive policies” which were “not far short of genocide.”
He said the seeking of extra money and supplies to help clothes, house and feed the refugees was only a “peripheral part of my visit.”
“The main question is that conditions in East Bengal should be normalized to the extent that the people will not feel compelled to leave their country.”
“The second important step is that conditions return to such normalcy that those millions who have already left can return.”
Mr. Swaran Singh made it clear that he wanted the big industrialized nations to call off economic development aid to Pakistan until it reversed its present policies.
Swaran Singh in Paris
India spending Rs. 1 crore a day for evacuees
From our Special Correspondent, New Delhi, June 11. India is spending about a crore of rupees a day to look after about 3.5 million Bangladesh evacuees now residing in camps, according to the Secretary of the Rehabilitation Department, Mr. Kahlon
Originally, India calculated that for a million of refugees the expenses would be about Rs. 9 crores for six months. The number of evacuees has now become about 3.5 million in camps though their total number was about 5.44 million by yesterday.
The Government of India has allotted only about Rs. 80 crores for the evacuees in this years budget. The sum is enough for two months only. Unless balanced by adequate financial assistance from the international community, even the whole amount of money enough to be raised by fresh taxation in India this year will not be able to meet the problem.
Mr. Kahlon told newsmen here this evening that though assistance from many countries had started coming in, it was far below what the occasion demanded.
He reiterated what had been announced in Parliament today that the Government of India would disperse about 2.5 million evacuees from West Bengal and Tripura to 50 Centrally administered camps in West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in order to “siphon out” the pressure on West Bengal and Tripura.
From his answers it became apparent that the Government had not yet made any pucca planning for the dispersal of the evacuees. The plan is vague and uncertain.
The main bottleneck today is the question of transporting the refugees from border area camps to dispersal points elsewhere Mr. Kahlon questioned about it said that “All kinds of transport” would be pressed into service trains aircraft, trucks, buses and a few thousands might even be asked to walk up 50 to 100 miles to reach camps in the western districts of West Bengal.
Meanwhile Mr. G. Stone, Charge d’Affaires of the US Embassy here, told newsmen today four transport aircraft (C-130S) of the U.S. Air Force would ferry refugees from Agartala to Gauhati. The aircraft is likely to operate on June 17.
Already one U.S. aircraft has carried out a test flight from Guwahati to Agartala and found things satisfactory according to Col. Turinpseed of the US Air Force, in charge of the “Operation Bonnie Jack” which will fly in eight sorties a day about 1,000 refugees from Agartala to Gauhati.
Two transport aircraft from the USSR are being made available to India to fly refugees from Calcutta to Madhya Pradesh. The date they begin to operate is yet to be announced.
The USA has till now earmarked $17.5 million for the refugees.
Mr. Kahlon told newsmen that the Government’s decision was to relieve West Bengal and Tripura of the pressure. But the Government was firm that all these refugees must go back to Bangladesh once the conditions were secure for them to return.
He was sorry that the international community till now had not responded adequately. It must put pressure on Pakistan in order to create conditions for the safe return of these refugees to East Bengal.
The break-up of refugees in States is like this : West Bengal – 4.3 million; Assam – 1.83. lakhs; Meghalaya- 2.53 lakhs (semi and Tripura- 7.31 lakhs) (as of last week in case of Tripura).
In West Bengal Centrally administered camps, cable of accommodating about
Birbhum, Bankura, housing about 8 lakhs of refugees.
India had already given to the UN High Commission for Refugees a list of requirements for three million refugees. The priorities indicated by India are : (1) Shelter materials like tents and polythene sheets (2) medicines and (3) foodstuff including cereals.
As the influx is galloping by about a lakh a day India is bound to revise the list of requirements. It is learnt that the Ministry of Agriculture is working out what quantity of wheat and rice it must recommend for additional imports to feed the refugees.
Mr. Kahlon said that the service of the refugees themselves would be available for putting bamboo bushes and other kinds of shelters in the camps planned for.
“It is an enormous problem with the help of the States. We are certain that we shall be able to meet it” Mr. Kahlon added.
About 16,000 worth of relief materials were flown into Calcutta on Friday from London by a Royal Air Force plane. The cargo includes 3,660 pounds of sulfur tables, and other equipment, adds our Airport correspondent.
The highest Oxford consignment, 37 tonnes of relief material, will arrive tomorrow from London. It will include two land rovers with trailers, 95 tonnes of milk powder, five water purifiers, two million tablets for water purification, 40,000 antibiotics, 20,000 sulfur tablets and two tonnes of soup powder.
An eight-member team of medical practitioners representing the Save Children Fund will arrive in Calcutta on Monday from London.
Offers of assistance from abroad received so far include about $14 million worth of milk powder, drugs and other articles from UN agencies adds P.T.I.
The Deputy Minister of Rehabilitation Mr. Bal Govind Verma, in a written answer to Mr. S. Sisodai and Mr. KLN Prassad in the Rajya Sabha today gave the following details of offers received from various foreign countries and Government:
Soviet Union – 50,000 tonnes of rice and 100 million doses of smallpox vaccine.
USA – 2.5 million dollars for feeding programmes run through voluntary agencies.
United Kingdom – $2.4 million besides supplies of tarpaulins and milk powder arranged by Mr. John Stonehouse, Labour M.P.
Government of Canada – two million dollars and some x-ray films.
Government of Australia – five lakh dollars. East Germany – commodities worth Rs. 20 lakhs. West Germany – one million DM. Norwegian Refugee Council – Rs. 3 lakhs. International Red Cross Society – 70,000 dollars and a large quantity of goods. Voluntary agencies of Denmark – dry fish. Over 3,000 tarpaulins, three tons of medicines and 90,000 sq. meters of plastic sheeting.
The Swiss Government has offered help to airlift cholera vaccine and other medical supplies to India, according to Radio Switzerland.
The Geneva office of the UN High Commissioner for refugees who is coordinating the relief work, said the international air now totaled $ 32 million (Rs. 24 crores). More contributions are expected shortly.
Thailand’s Red Cross Society will donate to India enough anti-cholera vaccine to treat 25,000 refugees, a Red Cross Society official said in Bangkok today. Adds. A.P.
Red Cross Central Division chief Khun Bibdh Virajjakarn said the shipment would be sent in the next few days, although the Society had not received a direct appeal from India for anti-cholera vaccine.
Reference: Hindustan Standard, 12.06.1971