Fighting polio with a little help

Statesman News Service

MALDA, (India) , Nov. 27. — Mrs Kalpana Khound, the Rotary chief of north Bengal and Northeast region, sought cooperation from the Malda DM, Mr Abhijit Choudhuri, for setting up a polio corrective surgery camp in the district at the inauguration programme of the pulse polio campaign drive in Malda district at Buraburitala, of the English Bazaar Municiplity on Sunday.

At the inauguration programme, the Rotarians sought help from a polio victim, 35-year-old Bakul Chandra Das , to pose as its model for the pulse polio campaign held at the Buraburitala camp. Bakul Chandra Das, who is himself physically handicapped, reached the camp with his four year old son, Mahadev Das to administer pulse polio drops to his child.

Mr Das is a fruit trader, who discontinued education after class V due to poverty and started work inspite of his physical disability. It was a real challenge for Mr Das, who purchased a rickshaw eight years ago from an agency, after the recommendation of the local political groups belonging to the LF.

The Malda zilla parishad sabhadhipati, Mr Goutam Chakraborty inaugurated the polio drive campaign, which was also attended by the district magistrate, chief medical officer and other top officials in the district.

“There are pockets in Kaliachak I, besides, Chanchal I, Kaliachak II Harishchandrapur I and its adjoining areas that have been selected as highly sensitive and resistance pockets and have been hampering the success of the pulse polio drive”, said Dr GC Sarkar, the Malda CMOH.

The Malda administration has decided to pay attention to the border areas between Bengal and Jharkhand after the detection of many new polio cases in those regions, said Mr Abhijit Choudhuri, the Malda district magistrate.

“I have also visited the pulse polio immunisation camps in the bordering area near Manikchak block and its islands on the river Ganges connecting Jharkhand areas”, Mr. Choudhuri further informed .

On the other hand, Mrs Khound told that the Rotary would organise polio corrective surgery camps in Patna and Bihar Sarif from 4 December-9 December, where many specialists will take part and a similar programme will also be held in the Jharkhand state.

Posted on 28 Nov.2005 at 15.56 IST.