A World Bank team was due to visit India some time in May or June this year, but there are delays already arising from the sanctions, officials said.

During the visit of a World Bank team in October last year a minimum of $ 200 million loan was pledged for a five-year period starting next year. But the bank was prepared to go all the way upto $400 million, the NACO financial consultant said.

Much of the World Bank's confidence in India's ability to properly utilise its funds was derived from the expertise built up by the NACO over several years in the field. The World Bank want 40 per cent of the money for the next project to go to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) whose role is seen ascritical in preventing the spread of HIV and to the care of those already infected.

NACO has earned much praise for successfully utilising $84 million out of the $100 million given for the first project which extends to March next year.

The second project is already well-advanced and a series of workshops are being held in different states in advance of the visit of the World Bank team.

NACO's debilitated status is immediately apparent in Delhi where it has been directly funding several leading NGOs whose projects have come to a standstill.

A NACO spokesperson, said "we funded those organisations which worked among high-risk groups such as sex-workers. Thus NACO funded a programme by the joint women's programme (JWP) which had gained the confidence of sex-workers in Delhi."

Another NGO funded by NACO was "Drishtikon," which has done extensive work collecting valuable data on the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases (STD) among women in Delhi. High levels of STD in a population lead to rapidspread of HIV.

Dr Sushma Sengupta, director of "Drishtikon" said "we were suddenly directed by the Delhi state AIDS officer to report to him at his office in Rohini rather than to NACO."

Inspection teams from the state AIDS cell landed up at the "Drishtikon" office in South Delhi rather than at the project site at the cantonment and demands for under the table payments were made, Dr Sengupta said.

Among those critical of the new policy of sidelining NACO is Dr. Shankar Choudhury of the department of community medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

"We would like to see the Delhi AIDS cell grow into a model for the rest of the coutnry, but it is plagued by bureaucratic approach and the frequent transfer of its officials to other areas like malaria control or anti-tuberculosis programmes," he said.

According to Dr Shankar Choudhury, the prevalence of HIV is doubling each year in India and it cannot be approached in the same way as malaria or tuberculosis. "For one thing, atpresent rates of transmission HIV is going to place a heavy burden on the health system unless everybody acts with a sense of urgency and responsibility," he said.

India already has recorded more than 4,000 cases of full-blown AIDS while there have been more than 50,000 infections resulting in a sero-positivity rate of 18.0 per thousand. Detailed all-India statistics are currently under preparation by NACO.

According to Dr Choudhury, training is absolutely essential for NGOs because they will need to be working with such high-risk groups as sex-workers, truck drivers and marginalised sections of society. Besides, he said, NGOs may find themselves tackling sensitive cases where, for example family relations could be endangered if the bread winner in a family goes down with AIDS.

Barring Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Manipur, none of the other states, including Delhi have managed to put up a credible state AIDS cell and each state has its own unique problem.

On top of it all NACO, the creation of whichwas approved by the Union Cabinet, has come under fire from the health ministry as a result of petty politics which have little to do with containing the disease, a NACO official said.

Earlier, NACO project directors were given wide powers in keeping with the sensitivity of the job, suddenly questions are being asked on each and every approval because of which its work has come to a virtual standstill, he said.