Evacuees will Not Be Pushed Back
P.M. Visits Camp In Islampur
Form Our Staff Correspondent, ISLAMPUR. Aug. 30 – The Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, told Bangladesh refugees today that they would not be pushed back to their country unless conditions for their safe return were created there. The Prime Minister gave this assurance while addressing a big gathering of the evacuees at Dwarivit camp in the Islampur area of West Dinajpur district this afternoon on the first day of her two-day tour of the North Bengal refugee belt.
A nagging drizzle in the area which started in the morning persisted throughout the day and the Prime Minister’s helicopter arrived from Purnea in Bihar around 2-30 p.m., about one hour behind schedule. The Prime Minister, who was accompanied by Miss Padmaja Naidu, Chairman of the Indian Red Cross Society, was received on the helipad at the compound of the Islampur Circuit House by the Governor, Mr. A. L. Dias and Mr. Siddhartha Sankar Ray, Union Minister for West Bengal Affairs and other officials.
Immediately after her arrival the Prime Minister went to the Dwarivit camp in an open jeep driven by Mr. Siddhartha Ray himself. About 40,000 refugees are staying in the camp.
All along the seven-mile route a large stretch of which was fenced off on either side crowds cheered Mrs. Gandhi. The Prime Minister, who had donned a raincoat because of the continuous drizzle, acknowledged the greeting standing in the open jeep.
The Prime Minister went round extensive areas of the camp on foot, squelching through sticky mud and slush although in some boggy places makeshift catwalks were made with split bamboo mattresses.
The Prime Minister went round the different wards of the local hospital run by a few foreign relief organizations and churches and distributed milk to some refugee women at one milk feeding center. Everywhere she was greeted with tumultuous cheers.
Later, addressing the refugees from a hastily-erected platform, Mrs. Gandhi described the evacuees as the guests of India although the host country, she pointed out, could not do enough to mitigate their sufferings because of its own limitations.
She referred to the onerous financial commitment for the upkeep of millions of refugees and deplored that foreign assistance received so far was only enough to meet the expenditure on the refugees barely for a week.
Late in the afternoon the Prime Minister returned to Bagdogra by helicopter where another big crowd gathered outside the airport area to greet her.
Mrs. Gandhi will visit a refugee camp in Cooch Behar district tomorrow before overflying the flood-affected areas of Malda, Murshidabad and Nadia districts on her way to Calcutta.
Reference: Hindustan Standard, 31.08.1971