The immunisation campaign started yesterday, but volunteers stayed back as they weren't paid last month; the civic body has been pulled up for reducing the number of teams deployed to increase awareness
The immunisation campaign started yesterday, but volunteers stayed back as they weren't paid last month; the civic body has been pulled up for reducing the number of teams deployed to increase awareness
After the payment debacle that plagued its April campaign, the immunisation drive undertaken by the BMC this month has run into troubled waters yet again. The weeklong polio drive, which started yesterday, saw a low turn-out of volunteers, who possibly stayed back, fearing a rerun of the BMC's failure to pay them for their contributions during the last month's drive. Now, in addition to the volunteers, the civic body has also attracted criticism from the state health services department, which has pulled it up in a letter, for reducing the number of teams that are responsible for visiting households and ensuring that children are brought to the camps for immunisation. Contrary to the 5,000 polio booths installed across the city in the last drive, the BMC put up only 4,715 booths yesterday. 
Dwindling figures: The civic body yesterday put up only 4,715 polio
booths across the city as compared to around 5,000 camps last month.
File pic
MiD DAY had earlier carried a report on the civic body's non-payment of remuneration that the volunteers were entitled to, for the services rendered by them in the six-day long drive, which was flagged off on April 3. ('Pay up,' May 10) MiD DAY's investigation had yielded that the BMC had failed to pay the volunteers in spite of the fact that the state had sanctioned the necessary amount to civic body. Usually, over 15,000 volunteers, along with civic health officers, work for the drives.
Dr S C Gupta, additional director, DHS (Directorate of health services), was critical of the BMC's decision to decrease the number of teams, without intimation. "The BMC informed us that there is a significant discrepancy between the census figures for population distribution, and the civic body's count of the same. In fact, the numbers estimated by the civic body was considerably higher than that revealed by the census. Acting on this discovery, the BMC decided to cut down the number of teams going from door to door to create awareness about the campaign. However, we do not think it was a good move. The same number of teams should have been deployed as on the campaign that took place in April. We do not want the drive to suffer in any way."
A medical officer said, "Many of our regular volunteers did not turn up this time. We had to rope in volunteers who are working on the malaria surveillance project. Thankfully they were free, since the campaign began on Sunday, a holiday. We will pay the polio campaign volunteers their dues tomorrow, following which they will resume their services. He further admitted, "The civic body should have intimated the volunteers about the logistical problems that led to the non-payment."
The Other Side
The state health services authorities issued a letter five days ago, but are yet to receive a response from the BMC. Dr Kishore Hargoli, in-charge of the polio drive, BMC, said, "I have not received any letter. There is a possibility that it has been sent to one of my seniors. The Census data is more authentic than our records, so we reduced the number of teams from 4,500 to 3,790. We wanted to chalk out a new plan in accordance with the census data."
Asked about the decrease in the number of volunteers, Hargoli said, "Initially, many disgruntled volunteers were reluctant to offer their services for the drive on May 22. But we have promised to pay them by tomorrow as the state has already sanctioned the amount. However, the last drive, which was held in April, had originally been scheduled for March. By April, a new financial year had begun, and we could not pay the volunteers money which had been sanctioned to us in the last financial year."
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