CALCUTTA: Reports that appeared from day to day in various newspapers could hardly describe the unprecedented calamity that had overtaken rural Bengal, observed Mr. Syed Badrudduja, Mayor of Calcutta, in a statement issued to the Press today [Oct 26].

Giving the impression of his recent tour in the interior of Murshidabad district, the Mayor said that he had seen with his own eyes numerous cases of devitalisation — devitalisation brought about by prolonged starvation. Hundreds of people had already succumbed, while thousands were awaiting their inevitable doom. Cholera and Malaria had already spread throughout the district and had begun to exact a heavy toll — more so in the Kamdi sub-division.

Describing the acuteness of the distress of people, Mr. Badrudduja said: “The rural people have been reduced to such [straits] that many of them have not merely sold their belongings but have been forced to leave their home and hearth in search of a few morsels. I came across a mother from a village of the Kamdi sub-division [who] came all the way to Berhampore to sell her child and the person to whom the child was proposed to be sold was actually going to enter into a written transaction but was prevented from doing so by responsible people of the town.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2018

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