MITHI, Nov 4: The district coordination officer, Tharparkar, Pir Abdul Haque Sarhandi has urged people from a cross-section of life to come forward and get their children vaccinated against polio.

He was speaking as the chief guest at a meeting of the Acceleration and Social Mobilization Committee of the Expanded Programme for Immunisation, held here the other day at Karoonjhar hall.

He expressed hope that people would extend their full cooperation with the members of the polio teams in order to ensure that each and every child was vaccinated.

He said that since Tharparkar was one of the most backward areas of the country, which spread over an area of 20,000 sq kms and lacked communication facilities, it made it a Herculean task to go to every village to administer polio drops to the children.

The DCO assured the EDO (health) that all government department heads would be asked to provide vehicles for this national cause as the EDO (health) had complained that they were running short of vehicles to make the programme a grand success.

Speaking on the occasion, the district Naib Nazim, Ramsingh Sodho, claimed that polio had been completely eradicated from advanced as well as under-developed countries as a result of campaigns but Sindh was yet to be made a polio-free area.

He stressed the need for a close coordination among elected representatives, government officials, notables, muezzins of mosques, social workers, teachers, and particularly parents to ensure that this campaign achieved its desired results.

Dr Nawz Ali Kalar, the EDO (health), informed the meeting that 761 teams with a staff consisting of 1,532 people had been constituted to administer polio drops to 165,319 children in four tehsils of the district during the campaign.

A WHO representative, Dr Tahir Kaliyar appreciated the efforts of the district administration and the health department for continuing the polio programme.