Azad Hind Dal

For the civil administration and the reconstruction work in the liberated areas, Netaji had formed a special Rehabilitation department. This department conducted the recruitment and training of the workers like Civil Administrators, the police force, medical and health officers, health and sanitary inspectors, dressers, nursing orderlies, engineers, overseers, mechanics, fitters, carpenters, engine drivers etc. Training of the volunteers consisted of a refresher course in the trades together with a short course in spiritual and military training to make them morally and physically equipped to work with the combat units under all conditions. The workers were trained to serve their own people in a liberated area in a selfless spirit. After their training the reconstruction workers were equipped with kits suitable for their special jobs and sent to the front in units like Administrative, Health, Medical, Engineering etc. as members of the Azad Hind Dal. The AHD workers were supposed to take up reconstruction work in the liberated zones in the same spirit as relief workers would work in an devastated region, in the spirit of seva. The immediate duty of the AHD was the clear the ground of debris, mines, bombs, and to make the area completely safe for the civil life, restore the utility services and establish law and order, provide essential food items, take health measures for preventing epidemics, open hospitals and medical relief centers, organize publicity and propaganda for explaining the aims and objectives of the Azad Hind Government among the masses and restore the morale of the local people. Special postage stamps and currency notes were prepared by the Azad Hind Government for use in the liberated areas. After ensuring that the area was safe and habitable and under the operations of a stable Government of the local people, the AHD was to move further for similar work, along with the soldiers. - Adapted from Netaji in East Asia, by N. Sengupta, who was a Secretary of the Reconstruction Department (Azad Hind Dal) , at the Rear HQ, IIL, Singapore