Kuwait Times (Kuwait)

Krishna Nagar: The Indian Government’s emergency relief operation to save tens of thousands of East Pakistan refugee children from dying of malnutrition is unlikely to begin for another month, according to information available here. And even then “Operation Lifeline” is expected to start functioning at only a seventh of the planned scale. Dr. A. K. Koleh, Chief Medical Officer of West Bengal’s Nadia District, of which Krishnanagar is the capital, told Reuter that he had received a letter today from the Health Ministry in Calcutta asking him to make immediate preparations to set up 15 nutritional therapy units for children in the District.

The letter set out the equipment, stores, and accommodation required for each centre, to which will be attached one doctor, four nurses and a number of paramedical staff. Dr. Koleh estimates that it would take about a month to lay the groundwork for the units. A major delay would be the 10- day holiday for Bengal's biggest Hindu festival, that of the Goddess Durga, the conqueress of evil. The letter orders the setting up of 15 centres in each of four West Bengal districts —Nadia, Murshidabad, West Dinajpur, and Malda. This accounts for 60 of the 412 centres considered necessary in West Bengal. If, according to Dr. Koleh’s estimate, the 60 are going to take a month to get under way then the other 352 will take even longer to establish. The setting up of the nutritional centres is the second phase of a central government Health Ministry plan entitled “operation lifeline”. The All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, UNICEF sources in Calcutta, the Health Ministry itself have all predicted widespread deaths from malnutrition unless some major childcare programme is launched soon. One British doctor working among the refugees, Dr. John Seaman, estimates that 100,000 to 150,000 children under the age of eight have already died of malnutrition and that deaths will soon occur on three to four times the scale of the Biafran disaster.