Lucknow, Oct. 6: Twelve-year-old Kishanveer, of Badaun district, limps with polio. He has received 20 doses of the vaccine against the virus, health workers learn to their horror.

Eleven-year-old Sajid, of Mau district, gulped do boond zindagi ki ? as superstar Amitabh Bachchan describes the vaccine in a public message ? 15 times, but still lost the use of his legs last month.

In India?s worst polio pocket of western Uttar Pradesh, at least 40 of the 42 new victims this year have been afflicted by polio despite receiving the vaccine, a report by the World Health Organisation ? which monitors the vaccination programme ? and the state health and family planning ministry says.

The government today suspended five doctors involved in the anti-polio drive for gross negligence. ?I have received complaints that despite use of polio drops several times, some children got affected by the disease. On the face of it, it appears to be a serious charge and I smell corruption in it also,? said minister for health and family planning Ahmed Hasan.

The minister said the vaccine doses might not have been preserved properly before use. ?We will take serious action if we find any negligence. We want the virus of polio to be wiped out completely from this state.?

But the instances of children getting polio despite vaccination do not seem to be new. A WHO survey on children afflicted by polio in the state showed that 61 per cent of the 1,242 new cases in 2002 and 70 per cent of the 88 incidences in 2003 were caused despite administration of the vaccine.

The state has asked the Union ministry of health and family welfare to send only imported polio vaccine vials. It is clearly based on a perception that the supplies to the state have been sub-standard, a health worker said.

The state health department has also sent vaccine samples to the National Institute of Virology, New Delhi, for a quality check. ?The vials have been sent for examination to ascertain the standard of the vaccines being administered to the children of the state,? said Dr .B. Prasad, director-general of immunisation and family planning, Uttar Pradesh.

The Centre receives supplies of the vaccine from certain countries and the Unicef, which sources it from top pharmaceutical firms in India. The quality of the vaccine and impact of the campaign are monitored by health workers and WHO volunteers.

Prasad said: ?This should not create any impression that the anti-polio drive was ineffective. The campaign has paid off considerably as the numbers show but the new findings are being checked.?