KARACHI: Hundreds of policemen will be guarding around 3,000 polio teams in 51 union councils of the city where a six-day polio campaign is set to kick-start on Monday, officials said on Sunday.

The campaign has particularly been designed to cover the areas where the authorities have found an increase in the number of children who missed previous campaigns for one or another reason.

The 51 UCs fall in all six districts of the city, however, parts of 14 out of 18 towns will be covered during the coming weekdays.

Those 51 UCs include eight from Baldia Town, six from Landhi, five each from Gadap, Orangi and SITE, four each from Gulshan and North Karachi, three each from Bin Qasim, Korangi and Keamari, two from North Nazimabad and one each from Saddar, Gulberg and Liaquatabad.

The officials said 2,849 polio teams would be deployed with 659 supervisors. Besides, the police authorities ordered for best possible security measures to be put in place for the campaign.

This will include deployment of police commandos in most sensitive localities.

Beefed up police patrol, snap checking and advance intelligence collection system will feature during the campaign in its designated neighbourhoods.

The officials said the campaign would cover more than 865,000 children aged five or less in neighbourhoods where people were still refusing to inoculate their children.

Along with the special drive in Karachi, the authorities have planned to launch a sub-national supplementary immunisation campaign for one day on Monday in Sukkur, Larkana, Shikarpur, Khairpur, Qambar, Jacobabad, Ghotki and Kashmore districts.

Besides, the six-day campaign will be continuing in several districts of Sindh, which will be spearheaded by community based volunteers, especially female community volunteers.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2016