With the objective of creating awareness about eradication of polio, two students and Rotaracts from Chandigarh – Gaurav Gupta and Deepak Sharma – have embarked on a tour across the country on motorcycle intending to log about 7,600 km in all.
The rally, which began at Chandigarh and will conclude at Goa, touching various cities and towns, including Delhi, Agra, Kanpur, Varanasi, Kolkata, Bhubaneshwar, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Chennai, Kanyakumari and Thiruvananthapuram.
Speaking to reporters during their arrival here on Tuesday, Mr. Gupta said the 25-day rally was funded by the National Polio Plus Committee of India for the Rotary Club. He said the PAIN (Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Nigeria) countries were the only four countries in the world that were still reporting polio cases.
Mr. Gupta said both of them were trying to interact with the parents and educating them about the need to administer polio vaccine on January 16. The team asserted that efforts will be continued in association with several partner organisations and agencies till polio was totally rooted out from the globe.
Rotary Club of Vijayawada Krishnaveni president Ashok K. Sethi appreciated the youngsters for spending time and undergoing physical strain for a noble cause.
He said around Rs. 706 crore was spent in India by the Rotary International to eradicate polio through the WHO and the UNICEF.
The rally was flagged off on December 20 last year and it would conclude on January 20. The team will be leaving the city on Wednesday for Nellore en route Tamil Nadu and other areas in south India. The club secretary T.V. Krishna Rao and others were present.
