Jagtar and Kashmira are the hundreds of truck drivers, considered most vulnerable to the dreaded AIDS, who look for safe sex while away from home for days together but get disillusioned by mere announcements and not actual implementation.

Launched with fanfare as part of AIDS awareness and prevention programmes, the condom banks set up at as many as 20 filling stations along the Vadodara-Bharuch national highway makes mockery of the official claim of spreading awareness on the sexually transmitted diseases.

The district administration had floated free condom banks at petrol pumps on the national highway No 8, from near Vasad village to village Palej bordering Bharuch, on June 16 last year and had asked the district AIDS control unit of the Health department to oversee the work.

Some 30 signboards sprang up along the highway. But how well the banks run can be found only after a visit to the filling stations. Most do not have the contraceptive, while at others the supply has been erratic. And there are the odd ones where staff are too busy filling petrol to get themselves involved in the awareness drive and distribute condoms.

Several servants and managers at these filling stations confide, on terms of anonymity, that the banks have almost been a non-starter. Managers at a couple of pumps around Sansrod claim they have not received even one condom ever since the boards were put up in front of their pumps. Neither had any official explained the drive to them, they maintained. They feel health officials involved lack commitment.

Official sources, however, blame it to inadequate staff and vehicles for the banks not operating as expected. However, on prodding further, they give in to say that it should not be so much a handicap for those willing to do the job in earnest.

Admissions from authorities come in parts: District Collector Anil Mukim, ex-officio chairman of the unit, says he is aware of lack of ``motivation'' among pump workers and health officials. Unit secretaries K C Thakker, superintendent Jamnabai Hospital and district civil surgeon B N Hathila admit to ``irregular supply'', but insist it is not commonplace. Both, however, promise they would improve the functioning of the banks.

But, highly placed sources inform Express Newsline that the situation may only worsen in days to come with the State Government blocking Rs 1 lakh to the district AIDS unit for the awareness drive this year. The grant had been coming for the past three years.

The money, the sources say, has been diverted to other wings of the health department: the deputy regional director, health, as well as the health departments of the district panchayat and Vadodara Municipal Corporation. Their heads, V M Shah, V T Javli and Shirish Patel, say they have received the funds but for training programmes and other activities.