PESHAWAR, July 5: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Masood Kausar on Thursday appreciated the Fata administration and vaccinators over success in polio eradication and asked them to keep it up.

“Indeed, the prompt and serious actions taken by the administration and vaccinators to implement the immunisation programme in real terms have proved fruitful. There is a need to maintain the tempo,” he said during a special meeting of the Task Force on Polio Eradication here at the Governor’s House.

Member of the National Task Force on Polio Dr Azra Fazal Pechucho, country representatives of Unicef and other international partners in the campaign, the Fata ACS and social sector secretary, commissioners, political agents and agency surgeons, and Frontier Region DCOs attended the meeting.

The relevant officials told the meeting that constant power outages in far-flung areas of Fata, including those of South Waziristan Agency, were causing major challenge to maintenance of quality of vaccine, while the administration and vaccination teams were applying every possible means and exploring alternate options to overcome the hardships.

Mr Kausar and Dr Azra praised international partners for help in fight against polio and said the process had to be continued until the complete success and ensuring protection of each and every child from fatal disease.

They said the government was considering a Rs119 million worth of plan for Fata as a regular development scheme to augment the ongoing efforts for polio eradication.

Mr Kausar and Dr Azra said the number of polio cases had risen in Fata until 2010 but the trend was declining and the credit of it went to the administration and vaccinators.