New Delhi, Aug 20 - After missing the deadline by over two years, India, one of the few polio infected countries in the world, will spend Rs.32.04 billion to wipe out the disease from the country in next three years, it was announced here Thursday.

'The main objective is to achieve the goal of zero transmission of polio and obtaining international polio free certification for accomplishment of this goal,' Home Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters after a meeting of the cabinet committee on economic affairs presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

'We missed the deadline of 2007. Now, we hope to achieve this by 2011-12,' he said, adding that at the cabinet meeting, 'the prime minister directed that the situation in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar be very closely monitored. The new strategy focuses on Uttar Pradesh and Bihar'.

The bulk of the 676, 874 and 559 cases that were reported in 2006, 2007 and 2008 respectively were from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Chidambaram added.

'The medicines are there. Why should the children not get them?' he asked and provided the reply: 'There are gaps in the delivery mechanism.'

According to Chidambaram, the annual strategy for polio eradication over the next three years had been decided on the recommendations of the India Expert Advisory Group (IEAG) comprising national and international experts.