Eradicating polio in India is proving to be a tough ask. The disease, which seemed to have been contained a few years ago, is rearing its head again. It has returned with vengeance in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Government's deadline for eradicating polio is 2007. But experts remain divided on the basics. One school of thought argues the disease will be eradicated if more of the oral polio vaccine is reached to the children. Another believes that the goal of eradication requires a change in the vaccine being used. A third group strikes a more radical chord the disease cannot be eradicated, and so the anti-polio campaign should be stopped. The stakes are higher. The anti-polio programme would lay down the ground for controlling other disease that have vaccines. vibha varshney ventures into an increasingly fraught territory, as another deadline for polio eradication closes in