পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (চতুর্দশ খণ্ড).pdf/৬৪৮

61 6 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড lowest in the world-is to be maintained over the next two decades. This is equal to nearly one-third of Pakistan's total GNP each year. The national government simply does not have the resources to meet the challenge. In most areas of the province conditions of near famine have always prevailed. The recent disturbances-causing much destruction of capital, food and a huge loss of labor, have made the situation graver still. There is every possibility that the bulk of the jute harvest-the region's chief cash crop and Pakistan's biggest single source of foreign exchange-will be lost next year. Many fields are abandoned and few people feel inclined to set about their normal work as long conditions of uncertainty continue in the land. The crisis has also bit the export of pineapples. India has banned Pakistani aircraft from overlying its territory and thus it is not economical to export pineapples by air. To make matters worse, acts of sabotage disrupt vital communication links making every single commercial transaction something like a military operation. In the remotest regions of the province such as Bogra and Sylhet, rebels are still active, terrorizing the peasant population and preventing them from tilling the land and tending the farms. Millions of peasants have been displaced and most of the government plans for flood control and irrigation have become nothing but paper dreams. Even under the British this part of the empire-then serving as the backward and exploited hinterland of Calcutta-was proverbial for its poverty. In those days Malthusian "corrective measures" such as famine and cholera would make sure that the population did not grow beyond the means of the soil. Nears 20 years of efforts by Pakistan-helped by half a dozen other countries-has kept the peopic of the region alive, but on the frontiers of semi-starvation. No progress beyond this has been possible due to the region's centuries of accumulated backwardness and poverty and an unjust system of economic organisation that constantly disfavored East Pakistan. This was perhaps, only natural within a free-enterprise economic system. In such a system investment is motivated by a desire for profit and enterprises in West Pakistan- that was at least 200 years ahead of the east wing-were obviously more profitable. This led to a vicious circle. The more West Pakistan developed at the expense of East Pakistan the less attractive investment became in the latter. For nearly three years now the central authorities as well as increasingly large section of public opinion in West Pakistan have been aware of this. But these were years of uncertainty and turmoil, and as a result, nothing positive could be done to save East Pakistan from further decline. The West Pakistanis are now waiting for complete peace to return to the cast wing before they launch their "crusade to save the east" from further suffering. They admit that they should have thought about this 20 years ago and blame one corrupt and inefficient central government after another for the present tragic situation. Whether complete peace will return to East Pakistan in the foreseeable future remains any one's guess. Over 35.000 guerrillas are being trained by India. A large number of the