KOHAT, July 12: Teachers engaged in anti-polio campaigns are facing immense hardships due to pressure on them to visit remote and scattered areas to vaccinate children while they are not given any facilities such as medical and conveyance allowances.

The district administration of Kohat has asked such government servants to ensure administration of polio drops to all tribal children living in various parts of Kohat after their displacement due to ongoing conflict and sectarian tension in their hometowns.

Polio cases are being detected from time to time among tribal children living in inaccessible areas of Kohat for last several years and skipped by polio vaccination teams.

An officer told Dawn that as part of polio team they had to visit far-flung areas on motorcycle or on foot in scorching heat for a meagre Rs250 a day and that too without any medical cover.

He said that area supervisor Nek Mohammad of union council Jarma, a drawing teacher in government high school in Muslimabad, met an accident while travelling on his motorcycle to check the teams.

He was taken to KDA hospital where doctors referred him to Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar, in serious condition, as he had received head injuries in the accident.

He said that in another such case area supervisor Mohammad Naeem was bitten by dogs in Jarma area and seriously injured during his duty. He was discharged from the KDA hospital after first aid and would have to take medicines for several weeks.

Members of polio teams have criticised the authorities that they put their lives in danger in bad security conditions for a few hundred rupees, but they had to spend thousands of rupees in case of accident from their own pockets.

They said that the government should increase their allowance, provide them conveyance facility and complete health cover so that they could perform their duty easily.

Meanwhile, deputy medical superintendent of women and children hospital has ordered Bangash Welfare Organisation to immediately leave the two rooms occupied by it for last several years.

The NGO has also occupied parking area of the hospital for their ambulances, which are rented to people on payment.

Sources said that some nurses and medical officers had also occupied private rooms, which was causing huge losses to the hospital. An official of paramedics association said that the hospital could earn profit by renting these rooms to patients.