INDIA’S PROBLEM
MOUNTING RESENTMENT AGAINST E. PAK. REFUGEES
Calcutta, India June 11 (AP)
TEN thousand East Pakistan refugees at a camp in Calcutta are being moved out of the city following angry protests by local residents.
It was the latest of several signs that India’s popular welcome to the refugees-now numbering 5.5 million according to the government- is wearing thin. The refugees in Calcutta are squating on reclaimed lands on which the relatively high-priced salt lake city housing estate is growing up.
In their search for shelter from the monsoon rains, many refugees broke into vacant appartments while others spread themselves on the porches of occupied homes.
A protests by local residents stopped the erection of refugee tents but sparked off a near riot by the East Pakistanis the Indian camp administrator was assaulted.
He reported 20,000 refugees are registered at the camp but half already have left to swell Calcutta’s thousands of homeless.
‘Naturally there is resentment, particularly among the workless in Calcutta who fear the East Pakistanis will take away what few jobs are available in the city by accepting lower wages, ‘said camp administrator S.K. Deb.
‘Local residents, who paid high prices for their property, fear the refugees will spread cholera in the city.’
Now the government is building a new camp for them thirteen miles (15 km) further out of the city.
There is mounting resentment against the refugees in other areas. In India’s tearich state of Assam, several thousand workers went on a 12-hour citywide general strike in Shillong this week to protest the influx of refugees and their freedom of movement.
A serious law and order problem over an endless influx threatens to develop in the border state of west Bengal where the East Pakistani refugees, infected with cholera are taken care of in the emergency tents ouside of Krishnagar hospital. According to government report, about 10,000 people have contacted the disease and due to lack of medicine, many of them will die.
Reference : Indonesian Observer, 12.06.1971