Even after launching 41 rounds of Pulse Polio programme in the last 12 years from 1995, people in urban areas, particularly Gulbarga city have remained indifferent to the efforts being made to stamp out the dreaded polio virus from the Indian soil. This has been the major cause of concern for people involved in enmasse polio vaccination.
However, in rural areas, people enthusiastically volunteer to bring their wards to polio booths to get them vaccinated against the dreaded disease.
According to Deputy Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey, at the previous Pulse Polio programme held in January in Gulbarga city, only 58 per cent target was achieved on the booth day.

Villages score
The vaccinators had to move house to house repeatedly in the subsequent days to ensure that every eligible child was vaccinated. In rural areas, the achievement of vaccination on the booth day would always be about 80 per cent.
"Whether in turnout during elections or during Pulse polio drives, rural people always excel,’’ said Pandey. He wanted urban people also to evince interest in the eradication of polio by bringing their children to polio booths during the four-day Sub National Immunisation Day (SNID) drive to be held from May 20 to 23 all over the district. The first day, May 20, will be reserved for booth vaccination and the subsequent three days will be for house to house drive.
Pandey asked all parents to bring their children below the age of five years to booths for administering polio drops irrespective of the number of vaccinations done in the past.

Clean slate
District Health and Family Welfare Officer Dr Nalini Namoshi said the polio drive was being undertaken again in 11 north Karnataka districts in the wake of report of fresh polio cases in Mumbai and in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh.
Karnataka has remained polio free from the last two and half years and Gulbarga district from the last three and half years, she said.
About 5.31 lakh children below the age of five years in the district will be covered during the drive. Included among them are 1.52 lakh children in urban areas. Primary school teachers have been instructed to be present on May 20 in their respective schools to mobilise people for the polio drive.