Supreme Court accepts right to rehabilitation of Narmada canal affected

In an interim order passed today in the Special Leave Petition in appeal against the judgement of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh High Court in the case of Narmada Bachao Andolan, the Hon’ble Supreme Court today rejected the claim of the Government of Madhya Pradesh that the canal-affecetd families of Indira Sagar (ISP) and Omkareshwar (OSP) canals, being the ‘beneficiaries’, have no right to rehabilitation, while NBA asserted their rights for land as per the Rehabilitation Policy for Narmada Project affected families. Read more


A Bench of Hon’ble Chief Justice Shri K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice J.M. Panchal and Justice B.S Chouhan today considered only the ‘hardship’ cases defining them as families with 60% or more land affecetd or to be affecetd by the ISP and OSP canals. The Interim Order today directed the Government of Madhya
Pradesh to:

1.      Grant the right of land equivalent to the land lost to the canals for all hardship cases.
2.      The land should be cultivable and allotted in the command area as far as possible and in the vicinity of the affected village.
3.      The 60% and more lost by these hardship cases i.e. severely affected families should be valuated at the present market rate, in spite of the year in which those might have been acquired in the past.
4.      If there is no land available in the command area or not acceptable to the canal-affecetd families, land from the Land Bank of Madhya Pradesh should be offered, but only after making it cultivable.
5.      Grievances, if any shall be heard by the Grievance Redressal Authority for Narmada Basin Projects.

All of these are directed as interim measures, without prejudice to the rights and entitlements of the CAFs, under the Rehabilitation Policy.

The interim order for the first time acknowledges the rights of the canal-affecetd families (i.e. the category other than the submergence affecetd) in the Narmada dam projects which can be of much benefit and relevance for protecting and fighting for the rights of similar categories in other dams and
projects.

NBA appreciates the Court for taking cognizance of the severely affected families by the canal network granting land based rehabilitation and market value to some of them. NBA would also continue with the legal battle to save the just and rational judgment of the Madhya Pradesh High Court delivered by Justice A.K. Patnaik and Justice Ajit Singh in November 2009 and assert all the rights of the affected, as already recognized in the Policy.

No data, no R&R Plans, No CAD Plans: How could canal work go on?
The Ministry of Environment and Forests today pleaded before the apex Court that the Devender Pandey Expert Committee that was asked to approve the Command Area Development Plans for the ISP and OSP has submitted its Third Report concluding that there are no full and adequate plans for both the projects and hence cannot be approved.

It may be noted that the MoEF has all the powers to issue a stop-work notice in this context of absolute non-compliance and its role is further endorsed by the interim order of the apex Court dated 25-02-2010 in the same case, since the stay on the canal work was lifted only for the ‘time – being’ and subject to the approval of the CAD Plans by the Pandey Committee and MoEF.

Arguing on the basis of the latest facts and official documents, Respondent-in-person Medha Patkar, pleading on behalf of Narmada Bachao Andolan and Advocate Sanjay Parikh brought to the court’s notice that the project-authorities do not have conclusive and reliable data on the total  and families to be affected by the entire canal network and how the State Government have been providing conflicting and incomplete figures to the High Court, the apex Court and the Narmada Control Authority. The same has also been
categorically concluded in the Minutes of the recently concluded 75th Meeting of the Resettlement and Rehabilitation Sub-Group of Narmada Control Authority held on April 16th at New Delhi.

The case of canal-affecetd was also pleaded by NBA on other important grounds including:

•       Already irrigated lands in the Narmada and Maan river bank villages which form almost 40% - 50% of the ISP and OSP command should be excluded.
•       There is no full data nor rehabilitation plan for the CAFs of OSP and ISP in which case, pushing land acquisition and excavation without the Plans would be ecologically most harmful and socially disastrous.

The arguments shall continue after the vacation. Advocate Sanjay Parikh and Smt. Medha Patkar pleased for NBA, the Respondents in the SLP. Senior Counsel Shri Andiyarunjina appeared for the Madhya Pradesh Government and Additional Solicitor General Shri Pareen Raval, with Advocate Harris Beeran  appeared for the MoEF.

Modi's SSP Politics misleading: No final permission to raise dam height yet

MODI's SARDAR SAROVAR POLITICS shall neither benefit Gujarat nor Narmada Valley
The politics around Narmada only continues to get worse by the day and has reached a level beyond the dam itself! It is obvious by now that Mr. Modi wants to raise the height of the dam beyond 122 mts in order to celebrate ‘Swarnim Gujarat’, rather than ensuring that the water crisis of Gujarat is resolved. There is no doubt that Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh are trying to obtain permission from the Central authorities to raise the dam to its final height by hook or crook and even influencing political opinion and authorities at the highest level, with alleged false information and fraudulent claims of compliance with all the stipulations on the basis of which the Project has been granted clearance. Read more


Mr. Narendra Modi’s recent statement that the Environment Sub-Group (ESG) of Narmada Control Authority (NCA) has, during its 48th Meeting held recently granted permission to raise the dam height to 138.68 mts is a false and misleading statement.  The permission to raise the dam height has not been finally granted either by the ESG or Resettlement and Rehabilitation Sub Group of NCA and hence Mr. Modi’s claim is far from truth. In any case, what purpose will it serve if the gates are kept open in a raised position? Both Mr. Modi and the ESG / NCA must answer this question forthrightly.

Mr. Modi is trying to create an absolutely false impression that the compliance of all the environmental safeguard measures is complete, while the fact and reality is diametrically opposite. Meeting after meeting of the Environment Sub Group of the Narmada Control Authority had clearly recorded the gaps and pitfalls in the compliance. Can the Chief Minister deny the fact that the Union Environment Ministry has forbidden irrigation in the command area of SSP since 2005 as the command area ecological concerns have not been addressed? It is also exposed by now that there is substantial non-compliance on various
environmental measures including command area development in Gujarat and hence the comprehensive interim reports of the Expert Committee chaired by Dr Devender Pandey has concluded, based on the governments own reports and presentations that there must be no further construction.

Worst is the scenario of benefits of Gujarat, since it is now known and officially declared in the state Assembly that the cost of the Project having reached 10 times the original, not more than one lakh hectares of irrigation is achieved, because not more than 30% of canals is built over 30 years. While there is a well-informed group within Gujarat raising questions with courage and conviction today, Mr. Modi only seems to be concerned with pushing the dam ahead, with political expediency and not the eco-protective prerequisites or fairly harnessing the benefits.

In spite of the Centre having given maximum financial assistance to the dam, the Modi Governemnt has not been able to utilize it with clear priority and honesty. In such a situation, therefore, more than 2 lakh people in the submergence area of the Sardar Sarovar in the three states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat and those at the resettlement sites, including in Gujarat, who are yet to receive all their due entitlements as per law and policy are certainly to cry halt, asserting their legal and human right. The
already submerged adivasi communities who are yet to receive land for land as also the thickly populated communities of farmers, fish workers and potters in the plain areas of M.P. are demanding accountability, before this monument of injustice is pushed even an inch further or higher.

However, it is not only the oustees of the Project, but the people of Gujarat, especially in the drought prone regions of Kutch and Saurashtra and even Rajasthan who must raise the issue of costs and benefits of this ‘never ending Project’, compelling them to face an everyday and unending crisis, leaving them high and dry for decades together. When the water is flowing more towards the cities like Gandhinagar and to the corporates, people must demand distributive justice.

Without the environmental measures complied with, as a pre-condition, before the dam and canals are built, the water logging and salinization, canal breaches and minimum utilization of today’s available waters would continue to infest the Project and decrease the possibility of even the few benefits that may accrue out of it. The people of Gujarat must realize this reality and demand a white paper and a comprehensive review before any further construction and investment.

While Mr. Modi is seeking the Prime Minister’s intervention on the one hand and revised investment clearance on the other, Narmada Bachao Andolan strongly believes that the Project which was always pampered and pushed through unacceptable and illegal means, while even false claims and data happened to be legitimized, it is now at the last phase of the Project at least that the truth must prevail. With more than one legal basis, including the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal Award, the state rehabilitation polices, the environmental clearances granted, the Planning Commission’s investment clearance and
various judgements of the Supreme Court, we expect that the Prime Minister would take recourse to the legal and just procedure of assessment, such as the one brought out by Devender Pandey Committee, CAG Reports as also the M.P. High Court’s judgements and not yield to the unjust and illegal political pressures from Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh both.

It would behove the highest authority at the echelon of the power structure, even in the case of Narmada that the Prime Minister refuses intervene in appropriately in order to bypass the planning and monitoring agencies and their reports, that too for the BJP Governments of Gujarat and M.P. joining hands only to gain political mileage.

Medha Patkar    Ashish Mandloi  Kamla Yadav     Kailash Awasya
Contact Ph: 011-26680883, 09179148973, 09424076624

Environmental Expert Committee submits its report indicting government of Madhya Pradesh

Devendra Pandey Committee has submitted to the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) its 3rd interim report, especially on the Command Area Development (CAD) Planning and canals of Indira Sagar, Omkareshwar (Narmada Dams), which brings out unbelievable non-compliance by Govt of MP and Narmada Valley Development Authority (NVDA) on CAD planning. The report says only draft report on CAD plan in Indira Sagar Project (ISP) & a brief interim report on Omkareshwar Project (OSP) are submitted and not even the final plans. Read more

What is submitted are not CAD plans but 'Expression of Interest'.The "plans" can not be approved and no further construction at the cost of environment should be permitted till compliance on prerequisites is obtained.

The report was submitted after the Supreme Court's endorsement of the Committee’s role and MoEF’s position as a sanctioning authority in its interim order in the case of Narmada Bachao Andolan (appeal in the SC against High Court – M.P.'s judgment by Govt of M.P.) dated 25-02-2010 which directed
that the canal work can proceed only with approval by the Devendra Pandey Committee and MoEF. It granted maximum of six week time to Pandey Committee and four weeks to MoEF.

Pandey Committee report clearly brings out that no full and final CAD Plans even for Omkareshwar, were submitted in 1992, as was argued by the Govt of M.P. in the Supreme Court and not one for ISP. Plans submitted in Oct 2009-Jan 2010 are also not for all distributaries and canals. For Omkareshwar, only brief interim report on CAD for left bank canal is ready and submitted.

The report further brings out that almost 60% of ISP command area is likely to face the danger of water logging & Stalinization and similarly large part of OSP command also is prone to drainage problem for which no mitigation measures are planned.

Calling such non planning and lack of planning, with the wanton proliferation of new projects as the biggest single malady in the major and medium irrigation sector, the Pandey Committee has disapproved the fact that there is still a tendency to restrict focus of CAD plan, to the traditional concerns regarding
distributory and optimal use of water, not the ecological impacts.

No implementable micro plans, disributory wise are submitted till date, the Committee has disclosed against all contrary pleadings by the state Govt before the HC and the SC, and hence balanced use of surface & ground water is far from planned. Very high water efficiency of 80% (as against less than 40% as the national average) is presumed without any supporting data. The report brings out this and much more and concludes as follows:

"For reasons detailed above, the Committee does not consider the draft command area development plans for Omkareshwar and ISP, submitted to the MoEF by M.P. in October 2009, as adequate in terms of conditions laid down as part of the environment clearance, and the subsequent stipulations by the MoEF and the NCA ESG. These plans detail only some of the engineering aspects of the CAD activity and the environmental safeguard measures essential for sustainable irrigation development as not been dealt with. Similarly the impact of construction of canal is not provided in the plan and therefore the committee could not assess the impacts of construction on environment such as loss of biodiversity, noise, water and air pollution etc. Therefore, these plans are incomplete and can not be approved."

MoEF letter to NVDA, M.P: Notice demanding response in four weeks:It is on the basis of the above report that MoEF has sent special letter to the vice chairman, Mr O. P. Rawat, NVDA, M.P. to submit its comments if any within our weeks. This letter can be treated as a notice, although MoEF, is even today, in a position of authority to issue stop work notice. While this is a welcome move, why is the ministry not taking an action under the environmental clearances to ISP (1987) and OSP (1993) as well as the Environment Protection Act 1986, without wasting time and not permitting any permanent damage, people question. Yet we look forward to the action at the earliest.

26/11 Verdict brings solace to Indian Muslims

The Recent verdict pronounced by a Mumbai court in 26/11 terrorist attack case has brought a solace to the Indians Muslims. Whereas the verdict has convicted Kasab and his operatives in Pakistan, it has acquitted Faheem Ansari and Shaikh Sabahunddin Ahmed who were falsely implicated by Bombay police as Indian co-conspirators to prove their theory of connivance of home grown players. Bombay police had charged the Duo with offences of conspiracy and involvement in terrorist attack. Read more

“I direct Ansari and Shaikh to be released forthwith,” said the judge disbelieving the prosecution story of how the duo facilitated the attack by supplying allegedly at LeT’s behest, a hand-drawn map of terror targets to the gunmen. Not mincing words, the judge said he found the entire evidence against the accused ‘highly doubtfull’. The police have said in the court that Ansari who had rented a flat near Badhwar Park (in South Mumbai) more than a year before the 26/11 attack had sketched some maps that were delivered to LeT commanders in Kathmandu by Shaikh.

“I feel the whole theory of the map being given by Ansari to Sabahunddin in Nepal, then the crude map being found unsoiled in the blood soaked pocket of a dead terrorist’s trousers is unbelievable…especially when the conspirators were relying on advance technology like GPS and VOIP all along,” he said “..Why would the LeT commanders rely on crude maps drawn by Ansari when sophisticated versions of the same work are easily available on websites like Google earth and Wikimapia?  All pieces of evidence against Ansari and Shaikh fall short of the standards laid down by the Supreme Court.”

The acquittal of Faheem and Sabahundeen has totally smashed the police theory of involvement of home players in 26/11 attack and that too of Indian Muslims. Had the Court accepted the Police theory of duo’s involvement in this conspiracy, it would have created havoc for Indian Muslims. We remember the aftermath of Batla House encounter which had created a wide spread scare in the minds of Muslims and they had become very defensive. No doubt the genuineness of this encounter is a matter of great controversy and UPA government has refused to institute a judicial probe. It has been happening after every terrorist incident.

As we know there is a general accusation against Muslims being involved in terrorist activities. There is a floating dictum that “All the Muslims area not terrorists but all the terrorists are Muslims.” The result is that a large number of Muslim Youth have been framed in various cases and are languishing in jails for long years. It has been found that most of them are innocent. They suffer long trials and are ultimately acquitted for lack of evidence as has happened in the case of Faheem and Sabahuddin.

Now Uttar Pradesh Police, which claims to have given the inputs of LeT’s ensuing attack and involvement of Faheem and Sabahuddin in this conspiracy to Bombay police  in advance, is also in the dock and its image has been badly slurred. It has now claimed that even if they have been acquitted in this case, they will pin them down in Rampur CRPF Camp terrorist attack. No doubt the genuineness of this attack has been questioned by various human rights organizations. UP Police has labeled Faheem to be the master mind of this case. This statement is quite intriguing and misleading. It is a fact that Faheem is not the accused at all in this case. Of course Sabahudin’s name figures in this charge sheet. This shows how police sullies the name of Muslims to defame them and creates an atmosphere of hate and mistrust in the general public.

The acquittal of Faheem and Sabahuddin has come as a breather for Indian Muslims otherwise it would have given the Hindutva fanatics an other chance to label Indian Muslims as collaborators of foreign enemies like Pakistan, LeT and others. This verdict has also enhanced the reputation of Indian judiciary and strengthened common man’s faith in it. (CNS)

SR Darapuri, is a Fellow of Citizen News Service (CNS) Writers' Bureau, a retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer (former Inspector General (IG) of Police), Vice-President of People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), UP, and also represents the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) and Lok Rajniti Manch (People's Politics Front).  Email: srdarapuri@yahoo.co.in. website: www.citizen-news.org

Affordable quality-assured asthma medicines bring hope to low-income countries

World Asthma Day, 4th May 2010

This World Asthma Day, people suffering from asthma in low- and middle-income countries can find new hope in its theme “You Can Control Your Asthma”, thanks to the Asthma Drug Facility created by the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union). The cost of treating asthma with essential medicines has dropped by nearly half for countries working with the Asthma Drug Facility (ADF), a procurement mechanism that makes it possible for low- and middle-income countries to obtain quality-assured essential asthma medicines at affordable prices. Read more

For example, until this year, the lowest cost for treating a patient with severe asthma through the National Tuberculosis Programme in Benin was 79 euros per year. By ordering through ADF, this cost has been reduced to 48 euros. In El Salvador, the savings per patient for the Ministry of Health’s National Tuberculosis Programme have been even more dramatic – the cost has dropped from 83 to 35 euros per year.

Through ADF, low- and middle-income countries can purchase the qualityassured, affordable asthma medicines they need. The ADF has a quality assurance system based on World Health Organization (WHO) norms and standards. It keeps prices down by having a limited competitive process among selected manufacturers based on yearly estimated volumes. 

Over the past 15 years, helping low- and middle-income countries manage their increasing asthma caseloads has been one of The Union’s lung health priorities. 

“These countries identified the prohibitively high cost of asthma inhalers as a key obstacle to providing asthma care,” said Dr Nils E Billo, Executive Director of The Union. “The ADF was established as a practical, affordable solution to this problem”.

In addition to the National Tuberculosis Programmes, other types of organisations are also taking advantage of ADF services. A nongovernmental organisation, the Kenya Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, purchased inhalers through ADF with the support of the World Lung Foundation and will start using them in the coming weeks as soon as the medicines arrive in the country. Another ADF client is the Epi-Lab in Sudan, a public health outreach research centre, which is working closely with the government to put in place a national asthma control strategy.

With the incidence of asthma rising in low- and middle-income countries, the challenges of managing patients with this chronic condition will also increase. Worldwide some 300 million people now suffer from asthma, but the causes of the condition are not well understood.

“Asthma is one of the under-recognised and under-funded lung diseases that The Union and other organisations are trying to bring forward on the public health agenda”, said Dr Billo. “We are pleased to bring new hope to those suffering from asthma, especially in light of the 2010 Year of the Lung campaign. A principal goal of the Year of the Lung is to raise awareness of lung disease and the solutions that are available to mitigate its effects on the lives of patients, families and communities”. 

Countries that would like to implement asthma programmes or integrated approaches to respiratory health may contact The Union at www.theunion.org or learn more about the ADF at www.GlobalADF.org.

About Year of the Lung 2010

The Year of the Lung 2010 is a campaign launched by the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) to build awareness of the essential role the lungs play in health and the toll taken by lung diseases. For more information, please visit www.yearofthelung.org

Whom are the houses for under the Kanshiram Urban Poor Housing Scheme?

To read this post in (हिंदी) Hindi language, click here

In the list of those who were alloted houses under the Kanshiram Urban Poor Housing Scheme last month, not a single urban poor figures from the two slum dwellings that were bulldozed last year in state capital Lucknow of Uttar Pradesh (UP). Read more

The urban-poor people, who were living on the banks of river Gomti beneath the Daliganj bridge, close to Mankameshwar temple, were forcibly removed and their dwellings bulldozed on 19 February 2009. Since the district administration said that these urban-poor people will get houses allotted under the Central government’s scheme to provide basic amenities for urban-poor people, these homeless people went to Dubagga where houses were being constructed under the aforesaid scheme. The construction work of these houses is lying incomplete because of the demand from the farmers who are getting displaced for a higher compensation. These people who were displaced from Daliganj, began to live in the houses constructed under the Homeless Housing Scheme of Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) in Peer Nagar, Vasant Kunj, that were lying vacant. The quality of construction of these houses is so bad that the people who were allotted these houses earlier don’t want to live in them. From this community, 180 people have submitted their applications for allotment of houses under the Kanshiram Urban Poor Housing Scheme.

Those urban-poor people who were living on the land of Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) in new Gandhi Nagar ward, behind Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Vibhuti Khand Gomti Nagar, had to face the bulldozer on 29 September 2009. We were told that the reason for bulldozing these dwellings was that the UP state Governor was to pass through the road alongside which these people were living, to inaugurate the building of State Human Rights Commission (SHRC). However, these people are still residing at the same place, and the Vice Chairman of Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) Mukesh Meshram had written a letter to the District Magistrate of Lucknow requesting him to consider these people for allotment of houses under the urban poor housing scheme. 150 people from this dwelling in Gomti Nagar have submitted their applications for allotment of houses under the Kanshiram Urban Poor Housing Scheme.

Last month when the list of those who were allotted houses under the Kanshiram Urban Poor Housing Scheme was released then it was found that not a single person from both these groups of urban poor in Lucknow figured in the list. People of both these communities are extremely poor. Most people living in Dubagga are stone cutters or do other daily wage labour, and in Gomti Nagar area, most people are either ‘dholak’ makers or do other daily wage labour to sustain themselves and their families.

The question that arises is that if poor families like in these two communities will not get the houses under the Kanshiram Urban Poor Housing Scheme, then who will get the houses? Also we want to know the background of the people who were allotted the houses under this scheme.

Urban poor people from both these communities will stage an indefinite demonstration from 4th May 2010 onwards at the Shaheed Smarak, Lucknow.

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This year 2010, is The Year of the Lung

The 4th of May 2010 is the World Asthma Day. Incidentally this year is also declared as The Year of the Lung to recognize that hundreds of millions of people around the world suffer each year from treatable and preventable chronic respiratory diseases. This initiative acknowledges that lung health has long been neglected in public discourses, and understands the need to unify different health advocates behind one purpose of lung health, informed Dr Nils Billo, Chair of the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS). Read more

The FIRS partners include the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), American Thoracic Society (ATS), Asian Pacific Society of Respirology (APSR), Asociacion Latinoamericana de Torax (ALAT), European Respiratory Society (ERS), Pan African Thoracic Society and American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP).

Earlier last year, the New York Times carried a series of articles on different parts of human body, but forgot the lungs! It is difficult to remain alive without lungs for more than few seconds!

The Declaration signed by the partners of the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) at the 40th Union World Conference on Lung Health last year read as following:

[Begin]
WE NOTE WITH GRAVE CONCERN THAT:
Hundreds of millions of people around the world suffer each year from treatable and preventable respiratory diseases, including tuberculosis (TB), asthma, lung cancer, H1N1, pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
WE RECOGNIZE THAT:
Despite the magnitude of suffering and death caused by lung disease, lung health has long been neglected in public discourse and in public health decisions.
WE CALL UPON OUR PARTNERS TO:
Enact smoking cessation legislation and programs to reduce the prevalence and stigma of tobacco-related lung diseases.
[Ends]

There are a range of health and environmental factors that affect our lung health. This includes tuberculosis (TB), tobacco smoke, biomass fuel smoke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, pneumonia among other respiratory infections. The evidence of their potentially devastating effects on global public health is increasing and they require a coordinated approach for control. These diseases all occur in predominantly resource-poor countries. They are perpetuated by poverty and inadequate resources and their control and management require coordinated approach among health programmes at all levels.

Statistically, there is 1 TB-related death that takes place every 18 seconds, 1 HIV death every 16 seconds, 1 child dies of pneumonia every 15 seconds and 1 smoking-related death every 13 seconds. The enormous public challenge posed by the combined epidemics of tobacco smoking, HIV, TB and COPD, is undoubtedly alarming.

More than 2 billion people or a third of the world's total population, are infected with mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is now the world's seventh-leading cause of death. It killed 1.8 million people worldwide last year, up from 1.77 million in 2007. It is one of the three primary diseases that are closely linked to poverty, the other two being AIDS and malaria.

Tobacco smoking is unquestionably the primary risk factor for COPD. More than 5 million deaths are attributed to tobacco use every year. Smokers have two fold higher risk of developing active TB disease. Tobacco smokers have 2 times more risk of dieing of TB. Tobacco smoke increases the risk of pneumonia, influenza, menningococcal meningitis, among others. Evidence is accumulating that smoking is a risk factor for TB. However there is no published data on the cellular interactions of tobacco smoke and mycobacterium tuberculosis. The risk to develop active TB disease is higher when tobacco smoking is combined with alcohol.

Dr Donald Enarson stressed that tobacco smoking cessation is an important part of the comprehensive tobacco control programme, and not the only part. So all components of the comprehensive tobacco control measures should be implemented for improving public health outcomes. Dr Enarson was referring to MPOWER report from Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI) of WHO which outlines the MPOWER package, a set of six key tobacco control measures that reflect and build on the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC, global tobacco treaty). Another delegates remarked that MPOWER is in line with the global tobacco treaty - FCTC - and we should be demanding implementation of the treaty to which governments have committed to enforce. The WHO FCTC is the first public health and corporate accountability treaty, said a delegate from India. Comprehensive tobacco control programmes can yield major public health outcomes, as 30% of male TB patients die of tobacco smoking.

Asthma is yet another major lung health challenge. It is a chronic disease that affects airways. When people have asthma, the inside walls of their airways become sore and swollen. That makes them very sensitive, and they may react strongly to things that they are allergic to or find irritating. When airways react, they get narrower and lungs get less air. This can cause wheezing, coughing, chest tightness and trouble breathing, especially early in the morning or at night. When asthma symptoms become worse than usual, it's called an asthma attack. In a severe asthma attack, the airways can close so much that vital organs do not get enough oxygen. People can die from severe asthma attacks.

More than 300 million people around the world have asthma, and the disease imposes a heavy burden on individuals, families, and societies. The Global Burden of Asthma Report, indicates that asthma control often falls short and there are many barriers to asthma control around the world. Proper long-term management of asthma will permit most patients to achieve good control of their disease. Yet in many regions around the world, this goal is often not met. Poor asthma control is also seen in the lifestyle limitations experienced by some people with asthma. For example, in some regions, up to one in four children with asthma is unable to attend school regularly because of poor asthma control. Asthma deaths are the ultimate, tragic evidence of uncontrolled asthma.

According to the Global Burden of Asthma Report, the majority of asthma deaths in some regions of the world are preventable. Effective asthma treatments exist and, with proper diagnosis, education, and treatment, the great majority of asthma patients can achieve and maintain good control of their disease. When asthma is under control, patients can live full and active lives.

Pneumonia claims two million children under five each year, yet no new drug, vaccine or special diagnostic test is needed to save their lives. The answers are at hand, and effective treatment is both inexpensive and widely available.

Host of other conditions that affect the lungs, are preventable, and often treatable.

Let us hope that 2010 Year of The Lung initiative of FIRS succeeds in putting the spotlight on the long neglected part of human body which New York Times missed, the lungs.