Civic polls dry Malda blood bank, many hit,Kolkata Civic poll, KMC election 2015,Bengal poll panel,west benagl local body election
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- Category: Indian Politics
- Last Updated: Monday, 06 April 2015 12:47
Kolkata Civic Poll: Civic polls dry Malda blood bank, many hit
The blood bank of the Malda Medical College and Hospital (MMCH) has run dry due to the upcoming civic polls here.
The municipal elections have seemingly decided to ordeal accident victims or thalassemia patients and all those who might require blood critically from the blood bank of the hospital. Volunteers of the district's blood donation movement apprehend that the blood bank will remain empty till the end of the civic polls. In accident cases the authorities of the blood bank made themselves clear that the victim needs to bring a donor from the family.
According to an official of the blood bank, compared to about 15 blood donation camps every month, only five camps were organized in March after the declaration of the civic polls.
Only 70 units of blood were collected in those five camps. "We have the infrastructure to preserve 1200 units of blood.At least 70 units are availed every day by patients. 450 thalassemia kids in the district need blood regularly and blood transfusion is crucial for each of them once or twice a month," the official said.
Blood donation camps are generally organized by clubs, voluntary organizations and the youth organizations of political parties. "As the poll campaign is going on in full swing, major members of such organizations are naturally busy working for their parties and hardly have time to organize blood donation camps. We fear that the crisis will not be over before the declaration of the poll results in the last week of the month," said Saumitra Dutta, a senior member of the blood donation movement.
CPI-M district secretariat member, Debajyoti Sinha conceded that poll campaigning has deterred members of the party's youth organization DYFI from holding blood donation camps regularly which is one of their basic activities. "We are still considering to organize at least two large camps to minimize the crisis," Mr Sinha, former district DYFI secretary said.
District president of the youth wing of the Trinamul, Amlan Bhaduri also cited the civic polls as a reason for the blood crisis in the district. "We have asked our rural workers to organize blood donation camps to meet with the demand," Mr Bhaduri said. Chief medical officer of health (CMOH) Dilip Mandal said: "We have appealed to all those concerned to take an initiative in overcoming this crisis. If blood donation camps are organized with larger participation, the situation will be normalized soon."