4 BONGAON CAMPS DISMANTLED
Monsoon Brings New Woes For District Administrations
By Manash Ghosh, It was raining heavily. The cma’s thin tarpaulin cover could not hold back the water for long. Some water was dripping in already; the evacuees shoved their meager belongings from place to place, away from the rain.
Outside, across the Bongaon- Boyra Road, hundreds of refugees had taken shelter under a row of giant banyan trees. As the rain began to come down still more heavily, they streamed across the road into the camp. Within a few seconds the already overcrowded camp was bursting at the seams.
Cramped together in the suffocating atmosphere, they stood silent. Hundreds, many of them women and children, were still standing drenched in the open. Seeing their plight a young volunteer implored a group of men standing at the entrance to the camp to make room for them. But in vain, No one was prepared to sacrifice the meager comfort that he had managed to obtain for himself. Baffled, the volunteer left.
The rain was already turning the camp site into a cesspool. Two of the three tubewells in the camp were half submerged. A helpless camp official pointed out the danger of the water in them getting contaminated. “This is dangerous, but you will see the same thing in almost every camp situated in low-lying areas.” Some of the evacuees, still in the open, rushed towards the neighboring huts for shelter. But these too were overflowing with people. In vain they trudged back to their old shelter under the banyan trees.
Later that night I was told that water had entered the camp and it was to be dismantled. Three more camps in the sub-division had also been dismantled for the same reason. Officials were hard pressed to find accommodation for the inmates. The harassed Sub-Divisional Officer pleaded helplessness. “There is no high land left in my subdivision. I don’t know where to accommodate the evacuees. Already I have over 200,000 of them, who are yet to get shelter.Thousands of them are still coming every day. The 30 camps that we have in the sub-division are full. Giving them shelter in some other low land means consequent problems for us.” He said with a sigh : “During every monsoon the Ichhamati renders about 80,000 to 100,000 people homeless in Bongaon. I don’t know where I can give them shelter this time.”
SUPERHUMAN TASK The sub-divisional administration will be faced with the superhuman task of evacuating both the evacuees and local people if the Ichhamati overflows its banks. The river, which cuts deep through Bongaon town, has two other tributaries also flowing through the sub-division. Over the years siltage has raised their beds. A day’s heavy rain causes them to overflow their banks, inundating large areas. “Fortunately so far we haven’t had a continuous spell of heavy rain. But when it comes we shall be in great trouble” the ADM said. The concentration of evacuees in this subdivision is the heaviest in West Bengal – about 700,000. As one drives down Jessore Road or Bongaon-Boyra Road, the sight of thousands of pigmy shacks lining neither side of the road can not miss one’s eyes. Every inch of land which is even slightly elevated has been occupied. Inside the shacks there is little room to spread one’s limbs. Families sit huddled when it rains. Water leaks through the roof and in vain they protect themselves by holding over their heads whatever they have – clothes, umbrellas and utensils.
At Bagdah, a row of huts on the bank of a canal were threatened by the rising water. In the rain the evacuees desperately tried to construct a low mud-walled bund alongside their shacks. Whether the band would be able to protect their shacks if the canal overflowed apparently did not bother them. Helpless, they were doing whatever they could under the circumstances.
Bongaon’s plight is made more acute by the non-availability of tarpaulins for camps and the near tottering modified rationing system for the local people. I saw three camps, one of them at Madrasa, within Bongaon town, which were yet to be fully covered by sheltering material. The bare bamboo structures had remained uncovered for several days. The evacuees, on their own initiative, had covered portions of the bamboo structure to provide themselves with some sort of a roof. There are about 40,000 evacuees in the sub-division who live in camps but have no roof above them. The SDO said that about 100,000 people had been moving between Bongaon and Basirhat and Bongaon and Krishnagar in search of shelter.
LAW & ORDER Lack of shelter has already given rise to a law and order problem in this sub-division. About a dozen cases of forcible occupation of houses by evacuees have been reported from the Bagdah thana area. Although the police in every case have restored the house to its rightful owner many of the houses have again been re-occupied by the evacuees since the monsoon set in. These incidents have given rise to tension between the local people and the evacuees and already several clashes have taken place. At Boyra in one such clash a local youth was stabbed to death by a group of evacuees. Bagdah thana has a force of only 15 officers and men who police a 20-sq mile area within which 200,000 evacuees live.
What is now worrying the sub-divisional administration more is whether the modified rationing system in force in the sub-division can be continued for long. With the number of fresh evacuees increasing every day, food stocks supplied to the sub-division for the evacuees are not sufficient and very often stocks are drawn from the rationing system to make up the shortfall.
Bongaon’s weekly requirement of rice to feed the evacuees is 3,500 quintals against 2,000 quintals of both wheat and rice supplied weekly for the sub-division’s rationing system. Many ration shops both in Bongaon town and in the rural areas have received supplies much less than their allotted quota and some have not even got their weekly supplies, Many local people have enrolled themselves at the evacuee relief centers to draw doles of rice, dal, potatoes and onions.
Food prices have gone up considerably since the heavy influx of evacuees began over a fortnight ago. The price of chapattis, which is sold in Bongaon by the kilo, now stands at Rs. 1.50 per kg and on an average each chapati costs 15 paise. Despite the high price, the chapati sellers, who can be seen near all the relief centers and camps, are doing a brisk trade since whatever they bring is sold out within a few minutes.
The monsoon has aggravated the woes of West Dinajpur, which is already reeling under the pressure of about 1.6 million evacuees. Waterlogging in many of the 87 camps in the district has given rise to serious health hazards and cholera has broken out in epidemic form in some of the camps. The Malan evacuee camp, in Raiganj sub-division, which has about 125,000 inmates has reported over 150 deaths from cholera. Since the sub-division, according to camp officials, has no ambulance and there is no means of carrying the patients to the sub-divisional hospital, a field hospital has been opened within the camp which admits about 300 cases of cholera every day. The cholera outbreak has been ascribed to the terrible insanitary conditions worsened by waterlogging, which has contaminated the water source of the tubewells. Waterlogging has also made four evacuee camps in the same subdivision inaccessible and the fear is that another spell of heavy rain might make several other camps situated in the interior totally inaccessible by road.
NADIA’S CONCERN
Monsoon worries are no less for the Nadia district authorities. The district too has over 200,000 of evacuees for whom no new camps could be opened for lack of tarpaulins. Out of the district’s requirement of 16,000 pieces of tarpaulins, it has so far received only about 5,000 pieces. What is, however, worrying the district administration most is the floods and the subsequent waterlogging which make about 300,000 homeless every year. The district’s poor drainage has made the waterlogging problem worse.
School and college buildings in the district which in the past used to provide temporary shelter to flood-affected people have now been occupied by more than 100,000 evacuees. About 30 schools and colleges have been closed for an indefinite period and unless alternative accommodation is found for the 100,000 evacuees the chances of their early reopening are remote. Long closures have already affected their finances badly and doubts have been raised whether these institutions, which are mostly privately owned, would be able to survive their financial difficulties when they reopen.
Bronchial diseases are now fairly common in the evacuee camps in the district. The district authorities wanted to bricksole the camp floors but they have not been able to get the supplies as brick production comes to a standstill during the monsoon.
My trips to various camps brought to light two other difficulties of the evacuees shortage of firewood and supply of drinking water. One of the most common sights that one comes across while driving down the Krishnanagar-Karimpur Road or the Bongaon Boyra Road is where evacuees search for firewood and drinking water. Armed with axes and big knives they cut trees, barks and branches and bring them to their camps heaped over their heads. Some also sell them for anything between 50 paise and Rs. 5 depending on the size and quality of the wood. At Karimpur, a small bunch of thin bamboo shaving cost 60 paise. A small piece of log costs Rs. 5.
Drinking water is the most crying need for those living by the roadside. It is a miracle that thousands of them still survive after drinking water from streams, nullahs and unused wells.
Reference: Hindustan Standard, 12.07.1971