Officials with the National Polio Surveillance Programme today said the first polio case detected in the Capital this year could have come from Bihar. The 14-month-old Baby Gulnaaz from Kirti Nagar was detected with the P1 strain poliovirus, known for its propensity to cause large outbreaks. According to government records, Gulnaaz was taken to Moti Nagar Colony Hospital on February 15 when it was found that her right limb was immobile. "She had high fever and investigations confirmed that she has polio. Though we are yet to do any genetic analysis, it seems that that the virus has travelled from Bihar,' said a senior official with the National Polio Surveillance Programme. Till date this year, 106 polio cases have been isolated in India but all of them have been P3 strains. This is the first P1 polio case in Delhi after August 2006. The neighbouring cities of Ghaziabad and Faridabad have been put on high alert, the official said. "If such a case is reported from an area, what follows is an immunisation drive. The government will try to do that as soon as possible,' a Delhi government official said. In the present case, the patient is a resident of Darbhanga jhuggis, a slum populated mostly by migrant labourers from Bihar. Officials said Gulnaaz was administered 11 doses of polio vaccine in the last two national immunisation rounds in January and February this year. While Delhi recorded seven cases of polio P1 virus in 2006, the state government had last year, claimed the Capital was free of the P1 virus. However, there has been an outbreak of the dreaded P1 virus in Bihar this year with 83 cases being reported from the state. Gulnaaz's family reportedly came to the Capital from Bihar six months back. With focus on the polio scare in the country, particularly in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, Finance Minister P Chidambaram allocated Rs 1,042 crore for a revised strategy on the crippling disease. India recorded 864 cases in 2007 as against 676 cases the previous year. The poliovirus enters the body through the mouth when people eat food or drink water contaminated with faeces. The virus then multiplies in the intestine, enters the bloodstream and may invade certain types of nerve cells, which it can damage or destroy.

Frazzled by the frequent disruptions in the supply of water meant for the Capital, the Delhi Jal Board wants the Centre to step in and ensure that Haryana sticks to the terms of water sharing agreement signed by the two States. Delhi and Haryana have been at loggerheads over the sharing of Yamuna waters and the recurrent reduction in the city's share over the past few months has brought matters to a boil. Options DJB officials say with most options already exhausted, the Board is now exploring the possibility of getting the Centre to establish a central monitoring mechanism that will act as a referee. "Our officials have been communicating with their counterparts in Haryana, we have already brought the issue to the attention of the Chief Secretary Haryana, written to the Central Water Commission and the Upper Yamuna River Board and even sent a legal notice with regard to the violation of agreement on providing water for the Nangloi plant,' said Arun Mathur, the Chief Executive Officer of the Board. A central monitoring mechanism he explained "would help in keeping a check on the flow of water between Haryana and Delhi.' "A neutral party that will keep an eye on the sharing of water will be able to alert both the States as soon as it observes a dip in the water levels of the Yamuna. We are only asking Haryana to abide by the agreement that has been signed and give Delhi its legitimate share of water,' he said. Mr. Mathur said while the Board is hopeful of getting Haryana to release the scheduled quantum of water, it wants to rule out any possibility of water shortage during the coming summer months. VIP areas Many parts of the city including the VIP areas have been witnessing water shortage for the past few days. Production of water at Chandrawal and Wazirabad water treatment plants has reduced following a cut in the water supplied by Haryana.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, Jagdish Mukhi, has written to Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz drawing his attention to the Capital's water woes and demanding proper allocation of the Yamuna waters. He has urged the Union Minister to convene a meeting of the Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh governments to discuss the issue of water sharing and to evolve a strategy to ensure that all States get their allocated share. Referring to the 1994 agreement on water sharing among Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab, and the decision to construct a pucca canal for carrying water from Haryana to Delhi, the BJP leader said the Congress Government had failed to ensure timely construction of that canal. "The Delhi Government was directed to get the pucca Munak canal constructed, through which water would reach Delhi from Tajewala. It is a matter of concern that in spite of the lapse of 12 years the canal has not been constructed,' the letter stated. Pointing out that almost a third of Delhi is deprived of potable water today, Prof. Mukhi said the recent reduction in water supply had compounded the woes of the people. Cautioning that the ground water level in the Capital was fast depleting, Prof. Mukhi said at some places the level had reached a precarious stage. Seeking Prof. Soz's intervention, Prof. Mukhi said the Centre should find a solution to the water crisis in the Capital, which had become a perennial problem. The letter also referred to the flow of sewage into the Yamuna, which is making the process of river cleaning impossible despite a huge amount of money being spent on the cleaning works.

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit announced on Saturday that her Government would soon provide sewer facilities in about 200 villages of the Capital to ensure facilities at par with the other approved colonies. Laying the foundation stone of a new 58-lakh-litre capacity underground reservoir and booster pumping station at Narela, Ms. Dikshit, who is also Chairperson of the Delhi Jal Board, said the Board would construct 58 underground reservoirs by 2009, of which 28 would be in East Delhi. Asserting that the Delhi Government was committed to providing drinking water supply to rural areas, she said a comprehensive plan had been chalked out for this purpose. "The Delhi Jal Board has commissioned a city-wide study with a planning perspective of 2011. This study had created a workable model to commission 109 reservoirs. "This would go a long way in improving availability and ensuring pressure of water in various parts of Delhi,' she added. East Delhi MP Sandeep Dikshit, local MLA Charan Singh Kandera, Councillor Sharad Chauhan and Delhi Jal Board Chief Executive Officer Arun Mathur were among those present at the function. Ms. Dikshit said in order to rationalise water distribution in North Delhi, West Delhi, North-West Delhi, South-West Delhi and Central Delhi, 25 underground reservoir and booster pumping stations would be constructed at various locations.

This year's first P1 wild polio virus strain has been isolated in Delhi. Fourteen-month-old Gulnaz from Darbangia colony in Kirti Nagar area is the victim. Daughter of a rickshawpuller, the girl's family migrated from Bihar just six months ago. She was supposedly administered 10 doses of oral polio vaccine in the last two national immunization rounds in January and February this year. Till now this year, 106 polio cases have been isolated in India but all of them have been P3 strains. This is the first P1 polio case in Delhi after August 2006. P1 has been India's major enemy with the global advisory committee on polio giving top priority to its eradication. The Union health ministry successfully contained its spread in 2007 with just 36 cases. For the first time since 1999, the number of P3 cases had outnumbered the number of infections caused by P1 strain. P1 travels faster and infects more children, which is why the emphasis was on eradicating type 1 first. P3 is a very slow moving virus with low virulence. P1 causes paralysis in one out of every 200 children, as compared to P3, which causes paralysis in one out of every 1,000 infections. Health ministry sources told TOI that a polio vaccination round is scheduled to take place in Delhi this month. But states can undertake an emergency mopup operation whenever a P1 strain crops up. Polio has been crippling India, with 864 cases in 2007 compared to 676 cases in 2006. This made finance minister P Chidambaram allocate Rs 1,042 crore just for polio in the Union Budget for 2008-09, most of which will be spent to contain the virus in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Bihar, which reported 193 fresh cases of the crippling disease in 2007, has been exporting polio strains across India. An alarmed health ministry has now marked 72 blocks in Bihar as high risk. These blocks or the ones adjacent to them accounted for three-fourths of the total polio cases in the state in the past five years. In 2007, 90% of P1 cases were found in these blocks. According to experts, polio immunisation activities are being intensified in these blocks. A special immunization drive was conducted on January 13 in these 72 blocks. A ministry official told TOI:

The Delhi government would provide sewer facilities in over 200 villages of the Capital. Chief Minister and chairperson of Delhi Jal Board Sheila Dikshit announced this during the foundation ceremony of a boaster pumping station at Narela. Over Rs 782 lakh would be spent on the construction of Narela underground reservoir. The work is likely to be completed in 12 months. Expressing the government's commitment to provide water supply in rural areas of the Capital, Dikshit said, "By 2009, 58 underground reservoirs would be constructed in the Capital. Out of these, 28 would be constructed in East Delhi.' The Delhi Jal Board has approved of Rs 263.00 crores for the construction of 14 underground reservoirs. Sandeep Dikshit, MP from East Delhi, expressed his gratitude towards the Chief Minister for the all-round development of the Capital during the last nine years. Area MLA Charan Singh Kandera also thanked the Chief Minister for approving the commissioning of 58-ML capacity underground reservoir in the area.

Educationists believe that children can often help adults see the road ahead. Climate change is one cause they hope children will take up. So when the British Council organised the first ever "Climate Change Champions' programme under the its "Low Carbon Futures Project', it school students it turned to. The project operates at two levels: working with selected networks to influence action at the corporate level and secondly working with a wider young audience to bring about extensive action. Twenty participants in the age group of 16-18 years were short-listed from over 500 applications received form across the four regions of India. Says Dr GS Gujral, Head Science, British Council, "This programme is meant to motivate the youth to play a key role in mitigating the effects that climate change is causing in India and worldwide. The 20 winners will engage in awareness programes at a local level, perhaps by organising a school network, set up an eco project or talk to important people in their community about bigger plans.' Of the 20 participants, three have been selected to represent India at the G8+5 summit at Kobe, Japan in May. Their role would be to interact with world leaders and thinkers and make them aware of the problem of climate change. Nidhi Patel of Vadodara, one of the three, believes that the possible solutions to climate change are by involving people at the grassroots level. "We need to realise that we are destroying our planet and if we do not react now, we will not be able to save it from destruction. The policymakers should be careful that the policies should percolate down to the lowest levels.' Jaswanth Madhavan from Chennai, another finalist, has already participated in many inter-school climate change competitions and believes that the inverted pyramid approach is the best way forward. "Every individual must try and make changes at a personal level and then think of educating the others,' says Madhavan. He practises rainwater harvesting at home and also has a passion for weather forecasting.