Ray watches evacuees return from Petrapole
By A Staff Reporter, PETRAPOLE, JAN. 6 – Al-together 3,000 evacuees left for Bangladesh from Gaighata and Petrapole today as Mr. Siddhartha Ray, Union Minister for West Bengal Affairs, arrived on a short visit to the area. Among those who went back today were Mr. Syed Khan. MPA from Narail and five year old Habib Rahman, a nephew of Sheik Mujibur Rahman.
Earlier, Central and State Government officials decided to request the Railway for more trains to take back evacuees from west Bengal. They met at Bongaon today for a brief meeting where dissatisfaction over the slow rate of return was expressed. The officials among whom were Brigadier Dutt from the Army and Mr. Dutt Choudhury of the State Relief Department, conveyed their feeling to the Union Minister. A representative of the Bangladesh Government was also present.
Explaining the reason for the apparent slow rate of return of evacuees a Union Government spokesman said, “It took nearly nine months for about one crore refugees to come to India. How can we reasonably expect to get them all back within a few weeks, now that they are not on the run?”
The Union Minister visited evacuee camps at Gaighata and Petrapole. He saw people waiting in the afternoon for one of two train trips the railways are running at present from Bongaon to Bangladesh. He talked to scores of individual refugees on the way, aboard trucks carrying them home in the queue for Red Cross blankets and cooking their food. He chewed their rations.
From Sailendra Roy of Darshana, who had fled with his family from Jessore to the five year old nephew of Sheikh Mujib, they all expressed their desire to return. Some were hesitant about what might await them in Bangladesh and were unanimous with praise about the hospitality, consideration and decency they had met during their stay in India.
Out of a total of nearly 10,000 refugees at Gaighata, the figure was 2,000 out of about 350 families left today. 6,000 at Petrapole. Officials hoped the rate might pick up from the second week of this month.
Authorities at Petrapole check post showed the Minster arms and ammunition they had intercepted during the past few days.
Reference: Hindustan Standard, 07.01.1972