Dy Cm Shukla kicks off Pulse Polio Drive in MP

Staff Reporter

Deputy Chief Minister Rajendra Shukla on Sunday kicked off National Pulse Polio campaign in Madhya Pradesh by administering polio drops at JP Hsopital. Addressing the programme, Minister Shukla said that Madhya Pradesh is free from polio since 2018. He also appealed to people to be alert and do not miss polio drops to their ward below five years. Public Health and Medical Education Minister Narendra Shivaji Patel said that MP is pride of being free from polio and it is significant to continue the same with alertness. On Sunday, polio campaign held in State capital caught attention of everyone as children below five years were administered drops at railway stations, bus stands, door to door and other public places. A special campaign to administer pulse polio drops among floating population of Bhopal was conducted at railway stations, bus stands and other public places. Special centres were also set up at brisk place to ensure polio drops to children aged below five years. A team was also assigned to offer door-to-door polio drops to children in Anna Nagar and nearby areas. There were 314 transit teams who visited high risk spots to administer pulse polio drops to children.

District Health Office has targeted to include at least three lakh of children in this campaign by giving them the drops. The campaign was also carried out in December 2023 in which team visited door to door, bus stand and railway stations. But there were many children left in this campaign. In order to provide pulse polio drops to the children who were left last week, special campaign is being carried out from June 23. Health officials informed that team has been also assigned at high risk spots like brickyard, lower area of water source, vegetable fields, etc. Mobile team was sent at construction sites, brick klin, crushers, etc and children of nomadic population of Bhopal districts were administered the drops. Similar arrangements were made for transit teams to dispense medicines at railway stations, bus stands and check points. The campaign was also launched at Bhopal railway station by administering polio drops to the children in presence of Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Devashish Tripathi and Chief Health Superintendent Dr Ajay Dongra. Total 12 booths are set up in railway colonies, railway hospitals.

Polio drops were give to the children at all main stations including Bhopal, Bina, Guna, Ganjbasoda. In moving trains, drops were given in Jhelam Express, Punjab Mail, Chhattisgarh Express, Rajkot Express, Malwa Express and other trains through mobile team. Senior Divisional Commercial Manager (Sr DCM) Saurabh Kataria informed that arrangement has been done to offer polio drops to the children of railway staff, general public and passengers at their ease. He said, mobile team will be taking halt at all stations to administer the drops. Polio drops will be provided to the children in all trains According to information shared by railway office, on Sunday 421 children of railway employees and 1569 children of passengers were given the polio drops at Bhopal railway station. The campaign will be continued till June 30.

Chief Medical and health officer Dr. Prabhakar Tiwari while stressing on the need of polio drops for children highlighted that target is set to administer polio dose in the district to more than 3 lakh children from birth to 5 years. District Collector Kaushelendra Vikaram Singh has urged the families to mandatorily administer the polio drops to children up to 5 years of age. He said that parents of children up to 5 years of age should visit the polio booth and get the polio dose to the child. According to the information, in the vicinity of 5800 officials at 3000 booths will administer the polio drops to the children across the district during this week. Additionally, a team of 301 supervisor, 197 Transit team and 36 mobile team have been constituted. Furthermore, to ensure that children up to 5 years of age do not miss the polio drop, a team is monitoring the administration of the drops through World Health Organisation (WHO), independent agencies and district panchayats.