Kutail Gamri (Karnal), October 31
The Prince of Wales has supported the campaign to immunise more than 100 million children in India as part of an ongoing programme to eradicate polio in the country. He has also hailed the UK Department for International Development (DFID) for providing £ 100 million aid to India to eradicate this disease.

Prince Charles, who arrived here in this village on a private visit today, walked through the streets of the village, visited several houses and interacted with a number of people, including women and children.

He remained in the village for about 80 minutes but did not prefer to talk to the Indian media. However, a few foreign mediapersons accompanying him were allowed to interact with him.

The official spokesperson for Prince Charles, Ms Kirsteen Clark, said: “Prince Charles is trying to learn more about rural folk in modern India.” She said the Prince had interacted with the local people and asked them about their life, their means of livelihood and economic position.

She said that the Prince of Wales opined that a lot of development was yet to be carried out in the rural areas of the country to compete with the developed nations. He termed the bilateral relations between UK and India a “strong and successful partnership”, she added.

Reminding the children and parents in India of the importance of being vaccinated against this debilitating disease, he also administered polio drops to a few infants of this village. He also interacted with a few mothers who had brought their children for polio drops.

Ms Joana Reid, senior health adviser of DFID who accompanied the Prince said: “The DFID is committed to support the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Government of India in polio immunisation programmes to help eradicate polio in India and rest of the world.”

She said: “It is vital time that all communities mobilise now to ensure that every child under the age of 5 years receive polio vaccine.” She claimed that 163 new cases of polio had been reported in the country during the current year.

Some school-going girls of the village performed a traditional dance and staged a play that Prince Charles keenly watched. An old woman of the village gave blessings to the Prince of Wales and prayed for his long life.

He visited a pre-primary school run by the Arpana Research and Charitable Trust in this village. Prince Charles is the Royal Patron of this trust that has its branches in UK also.

Later, he, along with British High Commissioner to India Michael Arthur and officials of the trust, visited the Arpana ashram. He held a meeting with Param Pujya Ma, the founder of the trust. He also inspected the working of the trust and held a meeting with the trustees and officials of the trust. No Indian mediapersons were, however, allowed to cover the visit of the Prince in the ashram.

Earlier, the Deputy Commissioner of Karnal, Mr R.S. Doon and other senior officials of the state government received Prince Charles and the British High Commissioner at the helipad of the state police training institute at Madhuban.