Cholera said to be partly checked

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32629, 10 June 1971, Page 1

Cholera said to be partly checked

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

CALCUTTA, June 9.

The cholera epidemic which has claimed the lives of at least 2000 East Pakistani refugees in the border areas of West Bengal has now been checked to some extent, according to the state’s Chief Minister (Mr Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee).

Mr Mukherjee was speaking to reporters yesterday as officials put the death toll at 2187 among an estimated six million refugees who have swarmed across the Indian border from East Bengal.

But unofficial reports reaching the Health Minister in Calcutta put the deaths at 4000—and this figure was only about half that given by diplomatic sources in Calcutta.

Health officials said that there was no way of stopping cholera spreading throughout West Bengal during the coming monsoon months. “We can’t hope to get rid of it; the only thing we can do is try to contain it,” one said.

Mass inoculations of refugees in the big camps outside Calcutta are being carried out non-stop by medical teams.

The small outbreak of the disease within the city itself appears under control but conditions in the camps are getting worse as the refugee flood continues. New camps

Officials said that the Indian Government planned to put up several new camps in West Bengal to accommodate 1,300,000 refugees.

Tens of thousands were living in the open because of a shortage of tarpaulins, and normal administrative work in the border regions had been disrupted by mounting pressure from the refugees, Mr Mukhergee said. Armed reserve police were called out yesterday to prevent rioting between near starving East Pakistanis and angry Indian residents at Barasat, only 15 miles north of Calcutta.

Barasat, an agricultural, jute and cotton weaving centre not far from Dum Dum airport, has a normal population of about 90,000. But more than 200,000 predominantly Hindu refugees have poured into the town, camping in schools, official buildings and even breaking into Moslem mosques. Although West Bengal is largely a Hindu state, the Moslems in Barasat reacted violently when their mosques were invaded. The reserve police turned the refugees out of the mosques and private homes but allowed them to stay in schools and Government buildings.

Some returning

A report from Dacca, East Pakistan, said that Pakistanis who had crossed into India during the recent disturbances had begun returning to their homes in large numbers, the Associated Press of Pakistan news agency said.

About 1060 East Pakistanis crossed into Pakistan near Meherpur in the Kushtia district of East Pakistan, the i agency said. Arrangements iwere being made for their speedy rehabilitation. President Yahya Khan on May 21. gave an assurance that Pakistan would allow bona fide Pakistanis to return to their country. Since then reception camps have been set up along the IndiaPakistan border to facilitate the return of refugees in India.

“The problem has got to be solved bv sending the refugees back to East Bengal when the situation allows it.” said the Commissioner for Refugee Relief and Rehabilitation for West Bengal (Mr B. R. Mandal). “We have not sufficient land to settle the people coming from East Bengal. All the Indian states have taken i their share of refugees from I East Pakistan over the years

and it has reached saturation level,” he said. Mr Mandal estimated the refugee population in West Bengal alone at present at 4,500,000 and said more were still crossing the border. He estimated the refugees in three other states bordering East Pakistan at between 1,500,000 and 2,000,000.

Solution to be sent

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, June 9. C.0.R.5.0. would send intravenous solution to combat the cholera epidemic among East Pakistan refugees “almost immediately,” the vice-chairman of C.0.R.5.0. (Mr J. B. Brown) said today.

Twelve tons of the solution had been bought from Tasman Vaccine Laboratories at cost for $6745 and the shipments would be carried in relay by Air New Zealand and Air India at no cost, Mr Brown said. The intravenous solution is an essential treatment for cholera patients who suffer from severe dehydration. By this treatment the fluid is fed intravenously because of the cholera condition. One ton of the solution will treat 300 patients for one day. Each patient requires three to five litres each day for about five days in a normal treatment.