500 Refugees Enter Basirhat Daily : Only Half Stay on
From HIRAN PHUKAN, Like an inexhaustible stream, refugees from East Bengal continue to flow into Basirhat sub-division. The pace, however, has slackened and fresh arrivals now do not, on an average, exceed 500 a day, according to an official estimate. The total number of refugees forced to enter the sub-division since the beginning of the Pakistani Army crackdown in Bangladesh has been put at over 700,000.
About half of them did not linger in Basirhat. Not finding enough vacant land they trudged through the paddy and jute fields seeking food and succor. Soon they came to the Salt Lake area on the fringe of Calcutta; some went to Kalyani; some to crowded stretches near the Dum Dum airfield from where they were later removed to Salt Lake and other camps. About 41,000 were sent to Bankura. Mana, Gaya and other areas by the sub-divisional authorities during the first phase of the planned dispersals which began on June 7 and were completed on Wednesday. Excluding those staying with their friends and relatives about 290,000 now remain in the subdivision’s 18 camps, public buildings and boats.
The boat-dwellers number about 35,000. Evading Pakistani troops and Muslim League marauders they had rowed through thr Sunderbans waterways in countrycraft many of which can be seen moored along the river opposite the SDO’s office in Basirhat town. These refugees draw their rations from the camps but stay in the boats. Their dispersal would pose a problem for they do not want to part with their vessels.
In and around Basirhat town there are three camps-Matribala Dholtita and Bekiwhere about 43,000 evacuees have been accommodated. The Dholtita camp has been set up mainly for destitute women and orphans. Plans are being made to bring all such refugees in the sub-division to this camp. A survey is now under way in all the camps to determine their number.
According to the ADM, Mr. H. P. Ray, many of the important schools and public buildings which had to be utilized to lodge refugees have now been vacated. The first phase of the dispersal programme had been generally trouble-free though considerable use had to be made of the art of persuasion for most refugees are reluctant to leave West Bengal. Some after taking their journey allowance (Rs. 2 per adult) made their reappearance in the camps or buildings they were coaxed to leave.
Politics of a sort intervened in some cases, the authorities had considerable difficulty in dispersing 250 families ledged in a madrassa. Objections were raised as to why they should be selected for dispersal when other schools and public buildings were still being occupied by evacuees. The authorities has to make changes in their plan, and clear a few more buildings before they could guide the 250 families out of the madrassa.
Three Guidelines The officials have been following three guidelines in selecting refugees for dispersal: those without shelter; those occupying public places and those who volunteer to leave. Refugees of the first category are the least reluctant to be moved anywhere for after food a roof over their heads is their most important need. Most refugees are keen on holding on to the ties they had established in their lost villages and would like nothing better than to be moved in groups, the members of which know or recognize one another. A group of families, now lodged in a half-constructed post office building in Basirhat town, told this correspondent that at an emergency meeting of their “village union” at Hurka, about 24 miles from Khulna, they had taken the painful decision to leave their homes. All the “union” members had come away together and they would all like to be resettled in the same place.
The ADM told me that Basirhat “does not have an inch of land to spare” and not more than 100,000 evacuees could be kept in the subdivision for a prolonged period. Dispersal will have to be started again but so far there has been no clear indication as to when this would be done and what future awaits the 290,000 refugees in the subdivision. The camp officials are now engaged in streamlining the administration of the camps. A watch is being kept on “touts’ ‘ who, especially during the early stage of the influx, took advantage of the ignorance and helplessness of the new arrivals by issuing false medical slips and ration cards at “fees” ranging from Rs. 10 to Rs. 20.
Despite the presence of the large number of refugees this correspondent got the impression that Basirhat’s worries at the moment stem not from the influx but from the “politics of violence”. Three murders have taken place in the sub-division in the past week and the authorities are thinking of winding up refugee camp near which some incidents had occurred. Police are much in evidence on the bus route through the sub-division to Hasnabad and at one village on Tuesday I saw a “combing” operation in progress. Two hours before I reached Hasnabad and ASI had been stabbed to death at a bus stop in Basirhat. The news had not taken long to travel to Hasnabad and by the time I arrived there groups of policemen were moving about and strangers like me were being given long, hard, looks.
Reference: Hindustan Standard, 17.07.1971