Delhi, Aug 26
The estimated annual cost of accommodating the 8,100,000 East Bengali refugees who have fled to India has risen to more than $1,000m (£416m). This is equivalent to the entire amount of routine foreign aid that India expects to receive for its economic development plans this year.

Government officials expressed fears that the rising cost of feeding the ever increasing number of refugees would cripple the economy within six months. They felt that the insignificant amount of international aid for the refugees that had trickled into India had failed to relieve the pressures on the economic system. While the international community had so far pledged $146m for refugee relief work, the bulk of the aid was still in the pipeline.

On the other hand, economic experts calculate that India has so far spent about $200m on the refugees. The figure is expected to increase drastically when the outlying states forward the more recent bill to the central Government for reimbursement.

According to Indian statistics, the bulk of foreign aid for the refugees has been promised by the West. Almost half of the $146m total will be provided by the United States, The British contribution amounts to $24m.

On the other hand, while India continues to berate the West about aid, the authorities have ignored the contribution offered by their new Soviet allies. The entire Soviet block has so far given the equivalent of $15m for refugee relief work.

The Government also expressed new fears today that the refugee population in India might increase to 10 million within the next few months. This would mean that the total annual population growth would almost double this year. The indigenous growth rate is 60,000 births a day. Officials said that the daily influx of refugees had increased to 62,000.

Calcutta, Aug 26.—Floods caused by monsoon rains rose in the cholera-stricken town of Malda today and many people were stranded on roofs. Flooding in East Pakistan left thousands of people homeless and damaged nearly a million acres of arable land.
[A report yesterday that four million people were homeless was incorrect.]

Indian officials said the level of the flooded Ganga and many of its tributaries was beginning to drop in West Bengal, but that the Mahananda continued to rise.

Officials in Calcutta listed 84 deaths from drowning, 40 of them in the Maida district. About six million people are affected by the flooding in an area of about 4,700 square miles. Officials put the loss of crops in West Bengal at about £33m.—UPI.