On the health front what are the challenges before you ? How are you planning to cope with them?
The main challenge is increasing population. Our Family Planning Programme has been successful in lowering the birth rate. On the other hand, TB is re-emerging as a major threat. We are more worried as one third of the city population is migratory. TB is a very infectious disease as one untreated person can spread it to a hundred more in a year's time. Under the National TB Control programme, we equipped five clinics -- Sector 19 Chest Clinic; Sector 22 Polyclinic; PGI; Government Medical College hospital and Sector 16 General Hospital to test sputum. Our National AIDS Control Programme is concentrated on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases. We are also watching out for malaria, cholera and other serious diseases.

What were the health schemes for the citizens and achievements of your department this year?
We did 3,062 sterlisations under the Family Planning Programme and the Central government has declared the UT a target-free zone. Under Pulse Polio Immunisation Programme, 13,586 children were immunised against that disease. Two hundred sixty leperosy cases were detected under the National Leprosy Eradication Programme. Our Matri Sureksha Programme was very successful too.

What about health care facilities for the rural children and women? Infant and maternal mortality -- most sensitive index of general health -- is increasing.
A new programme -- Reproductive and Child Health Care -- is being implemented to bring down infant and maternal mortality rate. This programme is in the preliminary stage. We also have a Mother and Child Health Care programme under which nurses and midwives are deputed to sub-centres in rural and urban areas. For calculating city classification only urban population is counted so Chandigarh is a C category city; this means that we get less staff and fund. The urban population is counted but the main problem lies in villages and slums.