Calcutta, May 20
The Home Minister of the newly established " Provisional Government of Bengal State" said today that a catastrophic famine might overtake East Pakistan unless a huge relief programme was undertaken immediately by international agencies.

The minister, Mr. A. M. Kamaruzzaman, who was speaking to journalists near the border, said that many people had already died of starvation and many more would die in the coming months because the martial law administration had no civil administration to handle food distribution.

"The military junta has promoted a few constables and clerks to high positions in some districts, but they have no staff. People are fleeing into the countryside at the mere sight of a martial law administrator", he said.

There had been large-scale destruction of crops and food stores and in many cases food stocks had been looted. Harvesting had been disrupted and rail and road links with the rural areas had been destroyed.

Mr. Kamaruzzaman went on "The Pakistan Government will not be able to rush supplies to these areas even if it had the food stocks. But Pakistan is accepting the famine as a godsend to end resistance in the countryside. Otherwise it would have welcomed relief measures offered by international agencies."

The Bengali leader asked foreign governments not to channel relief aid through the Pakistan Government. He pointed out that the Government had received about £45m. for relief work in the cyclone-hit areas of East Pakistan last year but "less than 50 per cent of this has been distributed. The boats and trucks supplied by foreign governments for relief work are being used to crush the people's fight for democracy".

Mr. Kamaruzzaman's fears of widespread famine were confirmed by several Pakistani journalists who arrived in Calcutta today after a four-day journey from Dacca. Then said that millions of people from towns and villages adjoining the main roads had fled into the interior to escape army patrols.

One journalist said the people had sought shelter in remote villages which were now overcrowded. They had taken bags of rice. poultry and cattle with them. but the food supplies were dwindling.

Mr. M. R. Akhtar, a well-known journalist from Dacca, said the roadside villages were completely deserted. "Whenever we passed down the major highways we saw burnt-out villages", he said.

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Delhi, May 20.-Foreign Ministry sources today confirmed reports that battle-ready Indian and Pakistani troops are facing each other within 500 yards of the East Bengal border.

This would not necessarily lead to fighting, the sources said, but they would not directly deny that war was "imminent".

They said India would have to take action to safeguard its interests if Pakistan did not stop "pushing across" hundreds of thousands of Bengalis into India. - Reuter.