Baharampur (WB), Sept 14: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today urged the people to extend their help to ensure that the country is made polio-free. "The country should be made polio-free and all children below the age of five years should be administered the vaccine," Bhattacharjee said inaugurating the pulse polio drive here.

A total of 8.5 lakh children were targetted to be administered the pulse polio vaccine from 3500 booths in the district. A large number of madrasa students, moulavis as well as purohits were seen moving around to convince people of all sections to ensure that their children were administered the vaccine.

The authorities deployed boats to carry the vaccine to flood-hit areas of Bhagabangola and Farakka in the district. The vaccine was delivered to the camps for administration among children of the area.

The programme saw the participation of state Health Director Prabhakar Chattopadhyay, district magistrate Manoj Panth and Sabhadipati Siddiqa Begum, besides officers of UNICEF. Bureau Report