About 70 lakh children get polio drops in MP

Bhopal, Jan 7 (UNI) About 70 lakh children upto the age of five years were administered pulse polio drops across Madhya Pradesh today.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan administered the medication to 18 children here while state Health Minister Ajay Vishnoi inaugurated the campaign at the cantonment town Jabalpur.

''Residents of even Muslim-dominated areas participated with enthusiasm. The government arranged for 1.42 crore vaccine doses that were distributed at division level as per the district-wise requirement,'' claimed the campaign's State Coordinator V K Shrivastav.

Tomorrow and on January 9, doses would be administered through a house-to-house campaign.

Besides 63,095 vaccination booths, 2,269 transit booths were set up and 1,848 mobile teams deployed. A total of 10,164 supervisors and 1.60 lakh other employees were involved.

''Besides Muslim-dominated Chhatarpur, Vidisha and other areas witnessed 'maulvis' monitoring the administration of polio drops.

Help was sought from the Rotary Club, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organisation and various voluntary organisations,'' said Mr Shrivastav.

With the objective of ensuring the campaign's success, mobile teams targeted urban settlements that are still under construction, semi-urban areas, brick kilns, quarries, factory premises and forest villages while transit booths were established at bus stands, railway stations, markets and fairs.

Pulse polio drops were also administered in Indore, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Ujjain and other districts.

UNI