Health Dept Request Police Protection
The health department in the district has sought police protection for all the 2,192 centres at which children in the 0-5 age group will be given polio drops during the immunisation programme on February 1. The department has sought this after centres were either attacked or besieged by irate public during an immunisation programme on December 21 following rumours of a child dying in Sathyamangalam after immunisation. The decision to request for police for protection was taken at a meeting convened by District Collector V. Palanikumar here on Monday to discuss arrangements for the February 1 programme.
The meeting resolved to achieve the target immunisation of 5,30,514 children across Coimbatore and Tirupur health districts. A drive would be carried out to assure the public that the polio drops would not cause any harm to the children. The Collector called upon the people not to believe in rumours and said that it was the responsibility of the parents to have their children immunised against a debilitating disease such as polio. Pulse polio drive and the need to reject rumours would be the main topic of discussion at the Gram Sabha meetings on January 26.
