LAKKI MARWAT: Residents of Khankhel Mandozai village here on Monday ended boycott of the polio eradication campaign after successful talks with the administration’s officials.

The residents of the rural locality had linked vaccination of children with solution to their problems.

The anti-polio drive began on Monday in all the 45 union councils of the district.

Deputy commissioner Abdul Haseeb took notice of the boycott of the campaign by the villagers and sent additional assistant commissioner Aminullah Khan along with health officials to the area to pursue them to end the boycott.

Mr Aminullah met the elders and assured them that the district administration would use all available resources to resolve their problems. He issued directives to the public health engineering department officials to repair a solar-powered tubewell and replace its faulty inverter forthwith.

The additional assistant commissioner promised reporting to the education department the issue of teachers’ absence in schools for initiating disciplinary action against them. He also assured that a lady health visitor would be posted to the village’s health facility. He said a medical technician, who is said to have not been in the good books of the villagers, would also be replaced.

After these assurances, the elders announced ending boycott of the polio campaign and allowed vaccinators to immunise their children against the crippling disease.

Mr Aminullah also administered several children with oral polio vaccine. He also paid surprise inspection visits to the basic health unit and government schools to check attendance of employees and availability of facilities.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2020