The state government's delay in processing the National AIDS Control Organisation (Naco) funds to Bihar State AIDS Control Society (BSACS) is hampering the various welfare programmes related to HIV-positive and AIDS patients.

Earlier, Naco used to send funds to the BSACS directly but around seven months ago, it changed the process and now it hands over the funds to the state government, which processes it to the society. Sources from the BSACS said the state government had still not been able to process the last round of funds provided by Naco, creating problems in the BSACS programmes.

A senior official of the BSACS told The Telegraph on condition of anonymity: "Of the Rs 23-crore funds provided by the Naco to the state government meant for the BSACS, it has been able to provide only Rs 5 crore. It has been around seven months but the state government has not been able to process rest of the funds to the BSACS because of which many of our programmes are not running smoothly. The BSACS provides HIV confirmatory test kits at Integrated Testing and Counselling Centres, primary health centres and district hospitals. As the BSACS has not received total fund of the Naco, the purchase of HIV kits has been stopped creating problem in detecting HIV and AIDS patients in the initial phase of their disease. Blood donations camps are also not being organised because of lack of the funds."

The official added that there was however no effect on drugs being provided to the AIDS and HIV-positive patients by the ART centres because Naco was still providing drugs to the ART centres directly.

The sources said the number of AIDS patients in the state had registered growth but not because the number of AIDS patients are increasing in the state but their testing has increased, so they (AIDS patients) are coming to light. Till 2012, there were something between 45,000 and 55,000 AIDS patients identified in the state while in 2013, the number of AIDS patients rose to 64,000-65,000 and the number of AIDS patients further increased to 70,000 last year.

Anil Kumar, deputy secretary, health department, admitted that there had been a delay in processing the funds of Naco to the BSACS. "We had sent the file to the finance department but they found anomalies in it and they sent back the file to us. After corrections, we have sent the file to the finance department again. As soon as the finance department clears the file, we would have to take the cabinet's approval as well," he said.