Not a single polio case in UP in last 3 years: Akhilesh

Uttar Pradesh has become polio-free as not a single case of the disease has been reported in the state in the past three years, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said today.

"The programme to make UP polio-free was launched during the earlier SP government and it was taken to villages as a result of which not a single child has been afflicted by the virus in the state," he said.

Polio drops should be administered to children regularly and a pledge should be taken to ensure that the disease did not surface again, Akhilesh said.

Addressing 'Sankalp Diwas' function to mark three years of eradication of polio in the state, he said the health department was making untiring efforts to provide better services to the people.

0n the occasion, Health Minister Ahmad Hasan said the government would run effective health programmes for the poor to help them avail maximum benefits.

Two ambulances would be made available in every district to take patients to PGI, KGMU or any other leading hospital and the service would be free of cost, he said.

Free ambulance service would also be provided to pregnant women from their homes to hospitals and back, he said.