IRC & WHO TO HELP CHECK EPIDEMIC
The International Red Cross and the World Health Organization have announced that they have been taking urgent steps to control the cholera epidemic among East Pakistan refugees in West Bengal, says the BBC.
Meanwhile Australia is giving $500,000 worth of medical aid to cope with the disease. The USA has provided four transport planes to India to facilitate transfer of diseased refugees from one place to another. The Soviet Union is also assisting India with four transport planes for airlifting refugees.
According to Reuter the Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Mr. Leslie Bury authorized on Friday the sending of a further 200,000 doses of cholera vaccine for use among Bangladesh refugees in India. Australia’s first shipment of 300,000 doses of cholera will reach Calcutta next Wednesday morning.
The new order will not be ready for another week because the batch has not yet been tested for sterility.
PTI says that a fully equipped 18-man medical team will start functioning within a few days at Malan, near Raiganj in West Dinajpur district for rendering relief to the Bangladesh refugees.
The Australian voluntary organization-Austcare-has provided $20,000 for the functioning of the mission, which will be leaving on Saturday for the Malan camp, now accommodating about 100,000 refugees.
A spokesman of the Yugoslav Foreign Secretariat in Belgrade, Mr. D. Vujica, has expressed the deep concern of his Government over “the humanitarian problem of the growing number of refugees from East Bengal who are crossing over to India” adds UNI.
He told reporters in Belgrade on Friday that Yugoslav humanitarian organizations had already responded to a plea of the league of Red Cross Societies for lending assistance to the refugees and they were preparing the first shipments. The Government of Nepal has openly come out in support of the East Bengal refugees by contributing Rs. 25,000 as relief assistance on humanitarian grounds”. Announcing the decision, an official Press release in Kathmandu says it follows the appeal made by the U. N. Secretary-General recently. The money will be handed over to the U.N.
The Chogyal of Sikkim has contributed Rs. 3 Lakhs as his Government’s contribution to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund for welfare of East Bengal refugees.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s military regime has decided to set up 20 checkposts along the East Bengal India border to “screen and scrutinize” East Bengal evacuees returning from India, according to the Associated Press of Pakistan.
Reference: Hindustan Standard, 05.07.1971