Patna, Aug. 19: Three months after Bihar State AIDS Control Society (BSACS) terminated contracts of 64 counsellors and technicians associated with it, no fresh appointment has been made so far. Owing to this, the services at integrated counselling and testing centres (ICTCs) have come to a virtual standstill across the state.

According to sources, there are 207 ICTCs across the state in district and sub-divisional hospitals and some primary health centres. These centres are supposed to have a counsellor and a technician apart from a medical officer as in-charge. BSACS move has also affected blood banks, which are supported by the society.

“About 20 per cent of the total counsellors and technicians were terminated collectively three months ago on charges that their contracts had loopholes and hence could not be continued. The move, however, has left ICTCs completely useless for thousands of people across the state. Many of these centres are completely non-functional, as there are no employees,” said a BSACS official.

Sources said ICTCs — set up by National AIDS Control Organisation (Naco) — are places where people are counselled and tested for HIV on their freewill or as advised by a medical provider.

“The major functions of an ICTC are to conduct HIV diagnostic tests, provide basic information on the modes of HIV transmission, promoting behavioural change to reduce vulnerability and linking people with other HIV prevention, care and treatment services,” said a source.

Senior BSACS officials took the step of terminating the counsellors after it was found that they were not adhering to Naco guidelines and the contracts did not adhere to prescribed norms.

Gyan Ranjan, the state president of People Living with AIDS, said the ICTCs were in such a bad state that they did not even have confirmation kits or experts available.

“People infected with HIV cannot get registered with Anti-retroviral Therapy (ART) centres, where they get medicines and treatment free of cost. This way, their basic rights are being violated. The current BSACS project director wants to operate things in his own way even if it means immense hardship to thousands of people. It is surprising that the state health department is acting as a mute spectator,” Ranjan told The Telegraph.

Senior officers in the state health department admitted that not everything was well with the current situation at BSACS.

“We are aware of the current situation at BSACS and trying to sort out the issues. Only recently seven of the employees whose contracts were terminated were reinstated. We are looking into the other cases as well,” said health department principal secretary Amarjeet Sinha.

BSACS project director Sanjeev Kumar Sinha was not available for comment despite repeated attempts.