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No cut in budget: WHO

The World Health Organisation today clarified that there has been no cut in its budget for India as a result of sanctions called by the United States.

Top officials at WHO's South-East Asia regional office in New Delhi said any cuts in its regular budget following the last World Health Assembly in Geneva in May applied to the region as a whole.

A proposed 40 per cent cut for the region based on new criteria for regular budgets was on the cards well ahead of the nuclear tests conducted in the sub-continent in May.

In fact, following representations from India and other members of the region, the cuts were limited to three per cent per year and spread over the next three years so that the total cuts did not exceed 18 per cent and may be as low as 12 per cent.

The limited cuts were despite the fact that Union Health Minister Dalit Ezhilmalai and then health secretary K B Saxena failed to lead a team from the ministry to Geneva as they were preoccupied with the government nurses strike in New Delhi.

UNI