July 2: The Government of Maharashtra has announced a reward of Rs 1000 to anyone who alert the concerned authorities about polio cases. The Public Health Department is so confident of the success of the `National Pulse Polio' campaign, that it has announced that not more than 100 polio cases exist in the state. A sum of Rs 100 000 (year 1997-98) has been sanctioned for the scheme.According to this scheme, if a person comes across a child (under 15 years) suffering from acute fiaccid paralysis (AFP), he should report the case to the nearest public health centre. At the health centre, it will be ascertained whether the patient is suffering from polio or not in 60 days. The reward amount will be handed over to the informer after that and the patient will be treated at the centre. According to Seema Dhamdhere, Deputy Secretary, Public Health, "The `award' scheme is an attempt to trace the few cases of polio that exist in Maharashtra. It has been inspired by a similar `Devi Nirmulan Yojana' which was implemented for the eradication of small pox a few years ago."According to statistics available at the Public Health Department, there were 283 attacks of polio in 1993-94 and 429 attacks in the following year in Maharashtra. The National Pulse Polio movement was launched in 1995-96 with Dec 7 and Jan 18 being the days marked for immunisation. According to Dhamdhere, only 80 polio-affected cases were reported in 1996-97 and by the year 2000, she hopes there will be none. Due to a Pulse Polio schedule followed by the WHO, polio has been eradicated from 146 countries. So if immunisation is carried out, the virus chain can be broken and it can be eradicated. Says Dhamdhere, "In the first year, 65 lakh children were immunised and one crore children (up to 3 years) in the following year. This year we will immunise one crore children (up to 5 years)." .¬Ut›>¼Tt›e handed down by President Boris Yeltsin, which took effect from yesterday, calls for the sale of spirits to be limited to shops that have a sales floor of at least 18 square metres. The measure is designed to curb the sale of illicitly distilled liqour.
