পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (চতুর্দশ খণ্ড).pdf/৩০৩

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বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড
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rate is between two and half and three Rupees. Farm laborers, shop assistants and other working district of Nadia. asking local employers not to hire refugees. Residents also complain that the price of kerosene, vegetables and other food has nearly doubled.

 Numerous incidents indicate that impoverished local people find it hard to accept even the minimal care given to the refugees. Says farmer Jogen Mandal: “These people are crooks. Each of them has three ration cards. Part of the ration they consume and the rest they sell. They get free medical treatment, and they are much better off than most of us.” Replies Bhahendra Nath Roy. former Vice-principal of Manirampur College in East Pakistan and now a refugee: “We know local people do not like our presence here, and clashes are taking place every day. Camp officials deprive us of rations, and if you go to complain officials get help from local people to beat us up."

The Big Problem

 While there has so far been a noticeable lack of the bitter Hindu Muslim religious tensions that resulted in widespread massacres at the lime of the 1947 partition, the economic and population strains on West Bengal have become extremely acute. Already suffering from overcrowding and under-employment, the state has never fully recovered economically from the influx of some 4,000.000 predominantly Hindu refugees, who tied to West Bengal when Last Bengal chose to become part to Moslem Pakistan in 1947. Ever since, the arca has been a fertile ground for political turmoil among terrorist groups, criminals masquerading under political banners, and countless university graduates with no prospect of jobs. But officials, faced with the urgency of caring for so many additional millions, have necessarily shifted other problems into the background. Says Siddhartha Shankar Ray. Mrs. Gandhi's Minister of West Bengal affairs: “My big problem is how- reopen the 2.500 schools that have been closed to house the refugees."