A mere year after the country was declared polio free, more than 200 samples have tested positive to polio-like symptoms from tehsils here, sending alarm bells ringing in the health department.

The samples, from Baheri, Meergunj, Faridpur and Nawabgunj among other tehsils, have been sent to the central laboratory in Mumbai for further testing. Officials have also been informed that the children, between the ages of 5 and 15 years, have complained of paralysis and loss of muscular strength in hands and legs.

According to World Health Organisation (WHO) rules, a country needs to have zero recorded cases of an infectious disease for three years for the disease to be eradicated. After years of intense campaigns across the country, India's last polio case, that of 18-month-old Rukhsar from Howrah district in West Bengal, was reported in 2011. Three years later, the country was declared polio free.