DACCA; ‘Pakistan, March 11 —The crisis in relations between East and West Pakistan has virtually halted rehabilitation and reconstruction work for the two million people affected by last November's cyclone disaster in coastal areas of East Pakistan.

Although distribution of food to the needy is continuing, last week's general strike and this week's ban by the Awami, League on Work, in most government establishments has closed the Dacca’ offices of the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission and the Reconstruction Board.

These’ two central Government organs are the chief agencies concerned with the disaster areas. The league is permitting relief work to continue, but the directors and staff of the two agencies sit at home in Dacca unable to deal with the longrange recovery programs.’

The situation is not as dire as it sounds. People’ affected by the disaster, one of the worst ever recorded, are not going hungry nor suffering any more than millions of others in desperately poor rural areas elsewhere in Pakistan.

100,000 Without Homes

Some 100,000 are without homes, but in the mild tropical winter around the Bay of Bengal this is no great hardship. However, prolongation of the present inertia in rehabilitation and reconstruction could cause misery and fatalities later. Those still homeless when the monsoon rains begin in May will face desperate conditions.

Last November's disaster caused at least 200,000 deaths and left thousands in need..

While the Pakistani Government in Islamabad was slow to organize relief, there was a tremendous response from other countries. Britain and the United States were among the first to rush in aid. The Soviet’ Union followed with airborne supplies.

Communist China ‘sent relief funds, to the Government for the Pakistan Red Cross, but Red Cross officials here say the money was never turned over to the agency.

The Pakistan Government's laggard handling of relief after the disaster helped build up the bitterness in East Pakistan that has resulted in the swelling resistance movement here: Easterners charge colonial type exploitation and domination by West Pakistan.

Aside from the present slump in rehabilitation and reconstruction ‐efforts, the performance of Government agencies dealing with the problem has continued along its rather slow‐paced course. Funds have been slow in coming through, transportation slow in bringing in supplies, anti decisions slow in materializing. Partly responsible for the inadequacies, according to knowledgeable sources here, has been the mounting tension and maneuvering between East and West Pakistan.

A Lack of Urgency

Another factor has been that Pakistani officials, are not believed to have regarded reconstruction and rehabilitation in the disaster area—after relief food had been provided—with as much of a sense of urgency as have foreigners. They point out that almost all of East Pakistan Is as poverty‐stricken as the disaster area and that reconstruction and rehabilitation on a province‐wide basis rather than concentration on the disaster areas is the rational approach.

Be that as it may, the persistently deliberate approach of Pakistani agencies here and the delays caused by the present crisis have meant that ways to utilize the $7.5‐million the United States Congress appropriated as disaster aid has not yet been decided here. United States aid officials say that the Pakistani agencies concerned have not yet presented plans and management arrangements sound enough to warrant firm agreements on relief projects.

Now the closing of these agencies has stopped what progress was being made in these matters. The evacuation of (foreign personnel now going on because of fears of uncontrolled violence in the confrontation between East and West Pakistanis will further hamper efforts at long‐range rehabilitation and reconstruction.

As a result of the closing of agencies here, work that had begun on embankments against sea waters has virtually halted. It had been hoped that half the embankments destroyed in the disaster would have been rebuilt before the monsoons come. This objective will not be achieved.

The distribution of relief food is being carried out by Pakistani agencies from United States public assistance pro gram supplies. An effective job has been done in getting food to the hundreds of thousands still in need and a brighter side of the situation is that the provision of relief food has not been interrupted.

Much of the American special relief appropriation, when it is finally put to use,’ will go into assembly halls to serve as cyclone shelters and into housing. However, agreement has not yet been reached on. designs and construction methods. This is just part of the unfinished business that will have to be taken up when the heads of the Pakistani agencies concerned return to work.