KARACHI, Aug 16: Sindh Chief Secretary of Fazlur Rehman has said that the government will deal strictly with those district coordinator officers (DCOs) and executive district officers (EDOs) of health who fail to help improve anti-polio campaigns and routine immunisation for children in their respective jurisdictions.

Mr Rehman was presiding over the first meeting of the provincial steering committee on polio-eradication at the Sindh Secretariat on Saturday. The meeting was attended among others by senior representatives of the WHO and Unicef, secretary of the health department, Shafiq A. Khoso, provincial project director of the expanded programme on immunisation, Dr Mazhar Khamesani, DCOs and EDOs concerned from almost all districts of the province.

Sources said the chief secretary expressed his concern over the increased number of confirmed polio cases during the year across the province, adding that the data spoke a lot about the deteriorating performances of the health officials in polio eradication efforts.

“It is high time for the DCOs and EDOs to come up with their commitment to the polio eradication campaigns. If things do not change, the government will have to introduce a column under the personal evaluation head in the annual confidential reports of the DCOs and EDOs,” the chief secretary and the convener of the steering committee said.

The provincial health secretary told Dawn that the CS was of the view that the inclusion of performance reports about polio would help ensure a system of rewards, incentives and punishment not only for the high-ups but their subordinates as well.

The CS asked the DCOs to ensure pre- and post- polio campaigns to sort out the problems faced by the field staff at district, town and taluka levels.

The DCOs were also directed to hold monthly meetings on polio and receive feedbacks on various polio-related measures and pass them on to his office for a review.

He further directed the DCOs and EDOs to ensure that the immunisation activities across the province were fulfilled with honesty and diligence so that the deserving population could benefit from the measures and was saved against the dreaded polio virus and other preventable diseases. “Negligence will not be tolerated any further,” he warned the government officials.

It was learnt that the chief secretary has also announced setting up of a cell at his office for the purpose of increasing coordination among different organisations on the subject of polio and routine immunisation.