BENGALURU: Officials from the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the Public Health Department are gearing up for the pulse polio immunisation drive, which will be held in the city on January 18 and February 22. Around 11.27 lakh children aged under five are expected to be covered.
On Friday, an awareness rally on this will be taken out from the Mahatma Gandhi statue on MG Road to the BBMP head office.
Mayor Shanthakumari on Wednesday appealed to the public to “ensure the 100 per cent success of the drive”. She said 2,970 booths would be set up across the city at public places like malls, markets, and bus and railway stations. “BBMP will cover 135 wards and the remaining will be covered by the Health Department,” she said.
BBMP Commissioner M Lakshminarayana said the focus would be on covering the children of migrant workers, especially those who work at construction sites. He said BBMP has already held coordination meetings with the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI) and the Builders’ Association of India to get details of such workers.
He said though no polio case has been reported in the last four years, the authorities are not taking any chances given the polio cases reported in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
According to official data, there are 11.27 lakh children below the age of five in the city, with 1.28 lakh living in slum areas and 32,043 children of migrant workers.