Come December 1, the World AIDS Day, the liquor shops in AP will start distributing condoms and displaying them at official functions. Banners and buntings at public meetings and functions will now hang blown up condoms along with balloons. Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, who was visibly upset over the high incidence of HIV/AIDS cases in the state and the slackening attitude of the officials and the people's representatives towards controlling the deadly disease, said hanging condoms at public meetings would ensure inquisitiveness among the people. The Chief Minister said bringing behavioural changes was the only solution to stop the fast spreading disease and officials should be innovative in achieving the goal.

The issue came up for discussion at the Collectors' conference and Naidu spent nearly an hour deliberating with officials on the measures needed to check the alarming spread of the disease. In fact, he pulled up AIDS Control Society Director K Damayanti for not displaying condoms at Jubilee Hall, the venue of the Collectors' conference.

Referring to the surveys, which pointed out that Andhra Pradesh ranked the lowest in the use of condoms, the Chief Minister directed the Excise Commissioner to make it mandatory for all the liquor shops in the state to supply condoms free of cost with every purchase. "Let them use it or throw it, we will supply condoms," he said.

The Chief Minister projected AIDS control as the topmost priority of his government, saying if its vulnerability was not tackled properly now, they would be left with nothing except AIDS for discussion after a couple of years. He wanted the AIDS Control Project Director to observe December 1 as AIDS Day on a big scale and prepare an action plan for the next one year.

When Damayanti said that AIDS awareness levels were indeed low in the state, Naidu said then go all out to make people aware of the killer disease. "You must first remove the stigma attached to the use of condoms. Display them at all official functions," he said.

Andhra Pradesh, with more than four lakh HIV/AIDS cases, is in the high-risk bracket on the world AIDS map. As many as seven per cent of the people in the state are HIV positive. In places like Vijajawada and Guntur, as many as 10-12 per cent of pregnant women tested positive to HIV.

Asked about the implementation of the AIDS awareness programme in educational institutions, the officials told the Chief Minister that AIDS awareness lessons would be made part of the evaluation process for class X students. Such lessons would also be part of the language courses at the Intermediate level from the next academic year.

When the Chief Minister sought to know the progress of the programme in the districts in the last six months, he was informed that the data would be available soon. The Chief Minister shot back and said, "This is not the correct approach. We can wait for the data, but the virus won't wait. It will devour the entire race. Therefore, I can't wait for you to put your act together for the disease would one day swamp all of us."

Referring to the controversy over Union Health Minister Shatrughan Sinha refusing to meet Bill Gates during his India visit from November 11 to 14, Naidu said it was unfortunate that the Centre had been taking exception to Gates talking about AIDS when there was need for everyone, particularly those in high places, to highlight the dangers of the disease.

The controversy arose following a speech by US Ambassador Robert Blackwell, quoting from a CIA report, that India would have 25 million people stricken with AIDS or HIV by the year 2010. A non-government organisation had claimed that the CIA report that Blackwell quoted from had been founded by the Gates Foundation. The purpose was commercial exploitation of Indians by creating markets for AIDS drugs and vaccines.

India had announced in March that it had 3.97 million people with HIV, second only to South Africa. Sinha, while refusing to meet Bill Gates, asked, "What do we achieve by saying in public that we will have 25 million people with AIDS in the coming years?"