Tuberculosis in India continues to take a toll of 1,000 per day or one every minute. It is estimated that there are 14 million TB cases in our country out of which 3.5 million are sputum positive. About 1 million sputum cases are added every year. National Tuberculosis Control Programme was started in 1962. The objectives of the Programme were to reduce the morbidity and mortality, to reduce disease transmission and to diagnose as many cases of tuberculosis as possible and to provide free treatment. However, it could not make much of an impact on this dreaded disease. It was mainly due to incomplete treatment as treatment completion rate was less than 40 per cent along with some other causes such as inadequate budget; shortage of drugs; emphasis on x-ray diagnosis; poor quality sputum microscopy and multiplicity of treatment regimens. The crux of failure of TB control programme was:

Lack of finances
b) lack of commitment by the policy maker's
c) lack of urgency to achieve control and
d) lack of compliance. CONTD