10,000 children left out of polio vaccination

At least 10,000 children remained out of polio vaccination in about 50 villages in remote Katchalong and Raingkhyong frontier areas in the district this year.

The countrywide National Immunisation Programme (NIP) was undertaken on May 4.

No health worker ever visited the villages in Bilaichhori and Baghaichhori upazilas, mostly inhabited by poor and illiterate tribesmen, local Union Parishad member Jacob Tripura told this correspondent recently.

About 4000 families of Tripura, Marma and Pankhua tribes live in these villages, where mortality rate, specially among the children, is very high, he said.

At least 100 children die from various diseases in the areas every year, he said

When contacted, Rangamati Hill District Council Chairman Maniklal Dewan said,

the area was never brought under vaccination programme. "We will try to bring the area under vaccination. We are thinking how to make a permanent arrangement in this regard", he said.