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| AIDS status in Armed Forces is monitored | | No evidence of foreign plot to hit soldiers: Govt. | | BL KAK
NEW DELHI, Apr 30:
The Government has ruled out any foreign hand or conspiracy to spread the dreaded diseases such as HIV and AIDS among the members of India's three Services--Army, Air Forece and Navy. The suspicion about 'hidden foreignhand' behind 'hidden moves' in this regard has surfaced at a time when Indian security forces have achieved major successes in their battle against foreign-inspired insurgents and terrorists.
Signifcantly, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has, in recent times, received queries with regard to the undetected role of unidentified foreign agencies while wishing to render ineffective the pro-active troops in different parts of the country, particularly in the northeastern region and Jammu and Kashmir.
And the official reply: There is no medical evidence to support the talk or suspicion of a foreign conspiracy to spread AIDS among Indian Army personnel. Medical services of the Armed Forces have a vibrant human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immuno deficiency syndrome (AIDS) control programme. And the status of HIV and AIDS in the Armed Forces is being closely monitored.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has, on the other hand,reckoned that Central police forces can be prone to 'special risk' from HIV and AIDS. No wonder, it has prepared an action plan which envisages creation of awareness, prevention strategy, testing facilities at force hospitals, follow-up procedure and training of medical and paramedical staff in handling HIV and AIDS cases.
A circular has gone out from the Ministry of Home, which calls for an effective monitoring of the status of HIV and AIDS in Assam Rifles (AR), Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Shastra Seema Bal (SB), National Security Guard (NSG), Special Protection Group (SPG), Civil Defence and Delhi Police.
Statistics available with the Ministry of Home Affairs reveal that the CRPF personnel accounted for a maximum number of deaths due to HIV and AIDS betwen 2002 and 2005. The figure stood at 86 (19 in 2002, 26 in 203, 26 in 2004 and 15 in 2005). The CRPF was followed by Assam Rifles, whiuch accounted for 39 deaths due to HIV/AIDS during the period. SSB is the only organisation , which did not suffer any HIV/AIDS fatal casualty during the 2002-05 period. As against this, BSF reported 15 deaths among its personnel, while the figure of death due to the dreaded disease was 26 in case of CISF. The lowest number of deathsw due to HIV and AIDS (just five) was reported from the ITBP during the period.
The President has already constituted a National Council on AIDS with the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, as chairman. The panel's vice-chairman is Minister for Health and Family Welfare. As many as 30 Central Ministers and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission are the members of the panel. Ministers of Defence, Home, Finace and Railways top the list of members.
This apart, Chief Ministers of three high-prevalence States--Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Nagaland--and of moderate-prevalence State of Gujarat and of thre highly vulnerable States of UP, Bihar and West Bengal have also been co-opted as members. Union Minister of State for Home, Sriprakash Jaiswal, has let it be known that the key areas of efforts required to fight the menace of HIV and AIDS among police personnel and their families will be identified by a special task force (STF) in coordination with NACO (National Aids Control Organisation).
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