22 lakh kids get polio drops

Chandigarh, January 19

On the first day of the Pulse Polio Immunisation Programme, over 22 lakh children in the age bracket of 0-5 years were administered oral polio vaccine throughout the state on Sunday, an official spokesman said. Around 38 lakh children are anticipated to be covered under the programme.

A Health Department spokesperson said Education Minster Kanwar Pal inaugurated the campaign in Jagadhri-Yamunanagar, while Minister of State for Social Justice & Empowerment Om Parkash Yadav and Transport Minister Mool Chand Sharma inaugurated the campaign in Narnaul and Ballabgarh, respectively. In other districts the campaign was inaugurated by the MLAs.

The campaign will continue for another two days by way of a door-to-door drive to identify and administer polio drops to the remaining children. To smoothly carry out this campaign, a total of 15,819 booths were set up in the state and these were manned by approximately 67,000 health officials, volunteers, anganwari workers and others. — tns