India sends another tranche of relief assistance to Rohingyas in Bangladesh

India has begun its fourth tranche of relief assistance to Rohingya refugees sheltered in Bangladesh's Cox Bazar as part of "Operation Insaniyat" which began in September 2017. 

The total aid in the fourth tranche would include 2,25,000 blankets, 2,00,000 woollen sweaters and 500 solar street lights. The new tranche is the result of a specific request made to the minister for disaster management and relief. 

In a release, Indian High Commission to Bangladesh said: "As a special gesture, India is making available a part of the consignment of blankets and sweaters for distribution to vulnerable sections of the local community in Cox’s Bazar."

The material includes the latest consignment of assistance for displaced persons for the winter, while the solar street lights are meant to ensure environment-friendly lighting solutions for the camps.

The release by High Commission added that the aid "is part of India’s continuing partnership and support for Bangladesh especially in sharing the burden imposed upon it because of the influx of a large number of displaced persons from Rakhine State in Myanmar." 

The distribution of aid began from Monday by the refugee, relief and repatriation commissioner of Bangladesh.

The first tranche under "Operation Insaniyat" in September last year comprised of 981 metric tonnes (MT) of relief supplies, including family packs of rice, pulses, sugar, salt, cooking oil, tea, ready-to-eat noodles, biscuits, mosquito nets among other relief services. 

The second tranche was delivered in May 2018 with 373 MT of relief material. The consignment included 104 MT of milk powder, 102 MT of dried fish, 61 MT of baby food, 50,000 raincoats, and 50,000 pairs of gumboots. 

The third consignment was provided in September 2018, where India handed over 1.1 million litres of SKO (super kerosene oil) and 20,000 kerosene multi-wick stoves. 

India has been calling on Myanmar and Bangladesh to implement the Rohingya repatriation agreement.

Recently, foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale said:"Government of India has noted that governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar have recently reached a bilateral understanding and obviously as the only country that neighbours both Bangladesh and Myanmar, we believe it is in our interest and in the interest of the region that this bilateral understanding is implemented as soon as possible and that the displaced persons return to their homeland as soon as possible."

Late last year India had signed the Rakhine State Development Program with Myanmar. The program is designed to assist the government of Myanmar in Rakhine State to build housing infrastructure for the return of displaced persons.