HYDERABAD, Jan 29: The Sindh Rural Development Society has said that the danger of polio cases in the district, which was declared polio-free, has increased as eight cases have been reported from the rural areas of the district.

Speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Thursday, SRDS president Ilyas Khokhar said these eight cases had been sent to Islamabad for further analysis.

He said during the recent anti-polio drive, 100 children in the villages of Tando Jam, including Hakim Ali Rajput, Kamal Lashari and other were not administered polio drops.

He appealed to the district Nazim and representatives of the WHO and Unicef to order an inquiry as to why the anti-polio campaign had remained unsuccessful. Mr Khokhar said an independent survey should be conducted and all the children who had not been administered polio drops should be immunized and action should be taken against the irresponsible staff.

He said so far 45 rounds of polio drops administration were conducted and Hyderabad district throughout the country had been declared a model district. He said the district was surrounded by danger zones such as Badin, Mirpurkhas, Thatta and Dadu districts where 12 cases of polio were detected.

He said throughout the province, 29 polio cases were detected last year. He said care should be taken to ensure that Hyderabad district should remain polio-free.

He said during the recent anti-polio campaign, the element of enthusiasm was missing and only publicity campaign had been launched through newspapers, posters and banners. Mr Khokhar said the entire exercise was not properly monitored and 98 per cent results were obtained only on paper.