CITY | Tuesday, February 9, 2010 | Email | Print |  | Back
Rajashree Birla announces additional 5 crore support for Polio eradication to Rotary
Mansi Goyal
In the capital to honour Health Minister Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad with Rotary's Polio Champion Award and to participate in the national polio immunization launch, Ms. Rajashree Birla of Aditya Birla Group announced to donate additional Rs 5 crore to Rotary International for polio eradication campaign. With an earlier contribution of Rs 10 crore by her, this makes the highest contribution from an Indian to the Polio eradication battle.
The Health Minister was honoured with the Award for this outstanding leadership and commitment to eradicate Polio from India. In her address, Ms. Birla applauded central government's efforts with Rotary and Partners in this direction and said, "Despite having all kinds of facilities and medicines, the children of our country are still becoming victims of this dangerous disease. Hence there is an urgent need to exterminate polio completely."
In his acceptance speech, Ghulam Nabi Azad thanked Rotary International for the Award and reiterated his commitment to making India Polio-free. Appreciating Ms. Birla's gesture as an act of great heart, Minister Azad said "Our heart should just not beat for us but for those also who are deprived, underprivileged and in need". He further added that India has made huge strides against Polio and that we are very close to eradicating the disease within a short span of next two to three years.
Affirming its commitment, the Health Ministry has energized the decade old polio campaign on a war-footing level and has successfully led the launch of the bivalent polio vaccine starting this year to counter the threat of two remaining Polio virus in the country.
In felicitating Minister Azad with the Rotary Polio Champion Award Mr. Kalyan Banerjee, a senior Rotary leader said that despite challenging public health concerns the Minister's emphasis on Polio has been inspiring. "Health Minister has led the campaign from the front and strengthened the partnership to deliver better," observed Mr. Banerjee.
Other dignitaries present at the occasion were Shri Dinesh Trivedi, Minister of State, Health and Family Welfare Ministry, Rotary India leaders, senior officers from the Health Ministry and representatives of WHO and UNICEF.
Dinesh Trivedi, Minister of State, Health and Family Welfare said, "Health Minister's exemplary role in leading the fight against polio is an assertion of the Government's efforts towards achieving polio eradication". Expressing the need of a strong commitment from all towards ending Polio, the Minister gave a clarion call to all and urged them to come together in eradicating the threat of polio from India.
"Ms. Birla has been a great moral support to Rotary in India and has contributed not just financially towards eradication of Polio but provided other supports too", said past president of Rotary International Rajendra Saboo.
"The measure initiated by the Healthy Ministry towards fighting the Polio in the country has been very encouraging. India needs such commitment from Government and Corporate in dealing with concerns like Polio which has been eradicated from almost all parts of the world" said Deepak Kapur the Chairman of Rotary's India Polio Plus programme.
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