Across Nepal House is the government treasury and the State Bank of India branch from where Kumar's office withdraws over Rs 3 lakh on account of salaries, office maintenance and purchase of medicines such as DDT, Primaquin, Chloroquin and Vitamin B capsules during the current fiscal year. Notably, Kumar's is not an odd case. Almost every office of the malaria department in the state has a similar tale to tell at a time when scores of people have died due to the disease.

Everyday, reports of such deaths are pouring in from far-flung towns and villages in this region. If official versions are to be believed, the disease has assumed the form of an epidemic in places like Hazaribagh – the Lok Sabha constituency of Finance MinisterYashwant Sinha – where the district administration has confirmed 60 deaths, including that of a government doctor during the past 40 days.

Similarly, in Palamau, Singhbhum and Gumla districts, 70, 20 and 15 deaths have been reported respectively. In Ranchi, a civil surgeon has confirmed four deaths during the past two weeks. Other districts reeling under the spell of the epidemic are Chatra, Bokaro, Jamahedpur and Gooda.

Apparently, while people are dying, the malaria department and the civil officials haven't ensured preventive measures like spraying of DDT in most affected areas.

Sadly, though there are no dearth of government doctors, officials and social activists, none of them had taken the initiative even to detect the disease early. They didn't even collect blood samples in any of these districts.

However, in Sinha's constituency, the Deputy Commissioner (Collector), health and Central Coalfields' Ltd personnel sent teams of doctors, carrying DDT, Primaquin, Chloroquin and Vitamin B capsules tothe identified areas and treated the patients. Elsewhere, they were left to fend for themselves.Deaths due to malaria is a recurrent phenomenon in this region. Normally, every alternate year, an unaccounted number of people die due to this disease during the winter. The government -- ministers and officials -- are in the know of it. They also must be knowing, it is presumed, that to contain the disease, the government had set up this department under the Malaria eradication programme of the World Health Organisation in 1956.

In 1996, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India in its report noted that this department had "failed to furnish details of expenditure amounting to about Rs 12 lakh drawn by it from the treasury for the office upkeep and purchase of medicines".

A report by the Society for Social Reconstruction, a voluntary body, notes that after the WHO withdrew its financial assistance in 1986, the state government has been running this department without providing it enough budgetaryallocation and that "its work force is corrupt as well as apathetic to their department's goal".