The city is all set to witness a series of voluntary blood donation camps in the days preceding the forthcoming Krishna Pushkarams. This is because the various blood banks in and around the city are gearing up to mobilise additional stocks of blood units in the wake of the huge gathering of pilgrims at the ghats and other places during the river festival period.
“We want to be prepared to meet any eventuality by storing adequate stocks of blood in our bank,” says S. Madan Mohan, Chief Medical Officer of Rotary Red Cross Blood Bank at Gandhinagar in the city.
All eyes are on the forthcoming pushkarams that will bring tumultuous crowds to the Kanaka Durga temple atop the Indrakeeladri hill and the bathing ghats being developed where devotees will take a holy dip.
Different wings of the government machinery are engaged in swift arrangements being made to put in place a well-chalked out action plan to provide adequate facilities at the ghats, at the temple and its vicinity.
Local NGOs are being roped in to ensure proper network of the facilities.
The throngs of pilgrims teeming at the ghats are likely to spawn challenges for the officials on various grounds.
The officials are leaving no stone unturned to make sure that the once-in-12-years event passes off smoothly. The law enforcers, in coordination with the revenue wing and other allied departments, plan to bring the entire stretch under surveillance while voluntary activists and other service organisations are gearing up to serve the visiting pilgrims in the best possible way.
Taking no chances
“The skewed statistics of the demand and availability of blood call for a scaled-up preparedness. Since the number of people visiting the place will be really large, in lakhs on a daily basis, we cannot afford to take any chances,” says Dr. Madan Mohan informing that the blood bank aims at mobilising and keeping ready 500 units of blood by the time of pushkarams.
Beginning Wednesday, the blood bank officials will organise four blood donation camps in a row in different places calling upon volunteers to donate blood.
One such camp will be organised at Lifestyle mall on Wednesday, at Pandit Nehru Bus Station on Thursday, at V.R. Siddhartha Engineering College, Kanuru, on Friday and on the premises of a local NGO on Saturday.
Requirement
Every year, our nation requires about 5 crore units of blood but of this, only a meagre 2.5 crore units of blood is available.
“The gift of blood is the gift of life. There is no substitute for human blood. Every two seconds someone needs blood. More than 38,000 blood donations are needed every day,” he says quoting national statistics.
More than 38,000 blood donations are needed every day
S. Madan Mohan
CMO, Rotary Red Cross Blood Bank
