Calcutta. Sept 16
After three days of dry weather the floodwaters which have threatened to engulf hundreds of thousands of refugees from East Pakistan, including those who have been marooned on road embankments, have begun to recede in West Bengal.

However. Indian officials said today that many refugee camps were still under water, particularly in the overcrowded district of Malda, and large sections of most of the main road links in the area have been breached by water. As a result the Government is still confronted with the problem of transporting stocks of food to the camps.

Many boats have been requisitioned to ship food to the refugees and hundreds of thousands of local inhabitants who are still marooned in the northern part of West Bengal.

The officials said that, as a result of the floods and the new bottlenecks in the food distribution system, the daily cost of accommodating the refugees was expected to increase for a limited period. At present India is spending £1.2m on eight million refugees every day.

The Administration is also confronted with the logistic nightmare of sending sufficient food to the distant eastern state of Tripura where a population of 1,400,000 refugees now nearly equals the local population of 1,500,000.

Government officials who are directly responsible for the welfare of the refugees also revealed today that only $12m (£5m) of the $154m promised by the international community had been received and distributed to the refugees so far.

The Bangla Desh mission announced today that Mr Mustaque Ahmed, the Foreign Minister of the “provisional Government” will lead a delegation of prominent members of the Awami League to New York next week in an attempt to put their case before the United Nations.

Although the provisional Government has no standing at the United Nations, a spokesman for the mission in Calcutta said that the delegation would lobby for support and it would attempt to take part or give evidence before Ine committee on colonialism.

Delhi: One person was killed and at least 15 injured late last night when a plastic bomb explosion hurled six coaches of a passenger train off the tracks near the border town of Karimganj in Assam. Eleven of the injured were identified as members of the Indian Army.

Karachi: Pakistan has proposed that the Soviet Union and Iran mediate in its differences with India, the Karachi Evening Star reported here today, citing reliable sources.

According to the newspaper. President Yahya Khan proposed a four-party summit conference during talks with the Shah of Iran in Teheran this week.—Agence France Presse