DHAKA: Indian leaders are set later on Tuesday to celebrate the eradication of polio, marking one of the country’s biggest public health success stories that was once thought impossible to achieve.

President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as well as the health minister and the head of the World Health Organisation are all due at a New Delhi stadium to celebrate ‘India’s victory over polio’, the information ministry says, reports The Straits Times.

India, long one of the biggest sources of the paralysing virus, has gone three years without a new case, which means it will soon be certified as having wiped out the scourge.

On the three-year anniversary of the last case, on Jan 13, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad hailed the ‘monumental milestone’ and promised a celebration in honour of the officials, volunteers, NGOs and UN agencies which made it possible.

BDST: 1632 HRS, FEB 11, 2014