127 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড শিরোনাম সূত্র তারিখ ৫৯। পূর্ব পাকিস্তানের অর্থনীতি নিউ ইয়র্ক টাইমস ৩০ জুন, ১৯৭১ বিপুলভাবে ক্ষতিগ্রস্থ THE NEW YORK TIMES, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30, 1971 EAST PAKHSTANIECONOMY BADLY HURT AS MOST TRANSPORT IS CRIPPLED By Sydney H. Schanberg Special to The New York Times Dacca, Pakistan, June 26-Food scarcities are becoming serious in parts of East Pakistan, cash is short in rural areas, jute factories are badly crippled and key road and rail communications continue to be disrupted by guerrillas. Nonetheless, most foreign economic experts here arc convinced that the government is willing, at least for the immediate future, to pay the severe economic price of supporting its army's occupation of the eastern region, which has been badly damaged during the effort to suppress the Bengali autonomy movement. Informed foreign sources report that their field trips have turned up food shortages in some areas that could become grave unless the disrupted transportation system improved markedly, One problem area is the northwest, normally a rice surplus region that supplies neighboring districts. The foreign economists say the northwest is desolate, with few farmers visible. Most have apparently fled to India to escape the Pakistani Army, which has been trying to suppress the Bengalis since March 25. Destroyed, Looted, Removed Food stocks in the northwest have been destroyed, looted or taken out of the country, the foreign sources said. The situation has not reached the starvation level, they added, but people do not have enough to eat, and the meal problem will arise in two or three months. "Right now" an economist said, "there arc more likely a lot of hungry people then a lot of dead people. The experts said that East Pakistan as a whole had a two month supply of food grains and that the problem was distributing it to the deficit areas. The railroad from Chittagong, East Pakistan's major port, to Dacca is still cut and guerrilla activity in the area is reported to be fairly persistent. The line normally carries 70 per cent of the food grains imported by East Pakistan. Major road bridges have also been blown.
