NEW NATION FOREIGN EDITOR SHIRI MULGAOKAR LOOKS AT THE PROBLEM OF THE EXODUS FROM EAST PAKISTAN
Fears grow over flood of refugees
Hints of action from New Delhi
The warming that India may turn to drastic measures if the flood of refugees from East Pakistan into West Bengal is not stopped is beginning to acquire a new stridency with Mrs. Gendhi’s statement in New Delhi yesterday.
There have been hints of action by India to stop the situation from getting completely out of hand but the use of armed force seems unikely.
Mrs. Gandhi put the number of refugees at 3.5 million and Indain estimates are that the total will reach 5 million before the monsoon sets in and makes movement more difficult.
These figures are contested by Pakistan and the Indian fear is that many of the refugees will be denied re-entry into East Pakistan when normalcy is restored by a too rigorous examination of their credentials as Pakistan citizens.
The frontier between West Bengal and East Pakistan is an open one for the most.
The epidemic, which first broke out last week in the many East Pakistani refugee along the Indian border, appeared to be worsening as a result of a cholera vaccine shortage.
The Deputy Chief Minister of West Bengal state, B.S Nahar, told news men about 50,000 refugees had reached the outskirts of the city in the past 24 hours and many more were on their way.
He said another 40,000 had emgered the city last weekend, with many living without shelter near Calcutta airport and in the neighboring Parganas disirict.
State Health Minister Jainal Abedin said there were now 6,200 confirmed cases of Cholera in the camps. Other reliable, but unofficial sources calimed the figure was aove 10,000.
The Health Minister said the Central Indian Government had been asked to rush 2.5 million Choera vaccine does to the state. Authoritative sources said there was a serious shortage of vaccine. At least one million doses were needed each week while total production in the city was only about 200,000 they said.
Health officials said that widesacle inoloucation against Cholera must begin at once to head off an epidemic in Clacutta that could spread easily to other parts of the country.
Indonesian Obesrver, 4 June 1971
সূত্র: আন্তর্জাতিক গণমাধ্যম ও মুক্তিযুদ্ধ ১৯৭১ . ১ম খণ্ড – মুনতাসীর মামুন