West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said India's success in eradicating polio is due to her government's resolve to ensure no cases occur."When we first assumed responsibility, there was one polio case in Panchla and India was not polio free. Members of all communities, all castes helped me. India is polio free and that is due to West Bengal because for three consecutive years we did not let it happen. This is Bengal's achievement," she said here.Banerjee, also the Trinamool Congress supremo, was addressing a gathering of district officials and residents to mark Nirmal Bangla Divas.
India's last case of wild poliovirus was recorded in Bengal on January 13, 2011, when a two-year-old girl from Panchal in Howrah district, near Kolkata, was infected.Banerjee also claimed three out of the four top-performing districts in India in the Swachh Bharat Mission are from the state."Nadia is the first district in the country to be open defecation free. Bengal's Nadia, Hooghly and Burdwan and Rajasthan's Bikaner. We are three, they (Rajasthan) are one.
"We are fighting three to one. We have bowled all of them out. Batting is ours and bowling is also ours," Banerjee said.She said her government had started the Nirmal Bangla Mission in Nadia on November 19, 2013 and had achieved the goal in leass than two years."Bringing social change is not easy. We are thankful to all for their wholehearted support," she said.