The second biggest challenge for Sardar Patel as Home Minister was, To make quick arrangements for the refugees coming from East Pakistan and West Pakistan. Michael Breecher has written about the population swap between India and Pakistan that the rumor, Due to fear and frenzy, about one crore two million people were exchanged, half of whom were Hindus and half Muslims.
Moseley has given this number as one crore forty lakh and Khushwant Singh has given one crore. Therefore, it can be assumed that fifty to six million people fled from Pakistani territories to India and the same number of people went to Pakistan from India. Rehabilitating so many people, There was a big problem.
When a large number of refugees from East Pakistan started coming to India, Sardar Patel threatened Pakistan that if people did not stop coming from there, then land would be demanded from Pakistan in proportion to this population. This threat had no effect on Pakistan, Did not fall Capital of India Delhi, It was filled with refugees from West and East Pakistan.
Where empty fields were visible in the evening, Waking up in the morning, people used to see that thousands of refugees had camped overnight in those plains. These people are hungry and thirsty, Winter, They were tormented by rain and diseases and had left everything in Pakistan.
Whoever sees them, Exhausted with kindness. The relatives of many of these people were killed in Pakistan, so these people were also very angry. The atrocities committed on them in Pakistan, They tried to take their revenge in India. That is why Sardar Patel appointed a large number of police and army in Delhi so that riots do not spread in Delhi.
Sardar Patel's Home Ministry would work day and night to rehabilitate the refugees. It was such a great crisis that it had vanished all the joy of freedom. Tent erected at various places for refugees, Drinking water was provided and temporary toilets and hospitals were built. Sardar Patel asked the Defense Minister of the country, Sardar Baldev Singh, to give the vacant Wavel canteen for the temporary stay of the refugees. Sardar Baldev Singh not only gave the Wavell Canteen to the Ministry of Home Affairs but also the Achinlake resting place which could house a large number of refugees.
Sardar Patel came to know that after the departure of the British soldiers, a large number of military barracks are lying vacant, Vallabhbhai also demanded those barracks from Sardar Baldev Singh. Liberal-Forbidden Sardar Patel, He had saved the subjects by collecting donations from the public many times in the movements of Gujarat, That's why he still hasn't been ashamed to ask and get help from wherever he could, Collected and gave it to the refugees.