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Bihar faces an "alarming" 84 per cent shortage in the estimated blood requirement for the needy, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said Tuesday and urged elected representatives to donate blood regularly.
"Only 16 per cent of the requirement is available in blood banks in Bihar. The shortfall of 84 per cent is alarming," he said at an event to mark the foundation day of the Bihar Assembly.
Modi and other legislators donated blood at a blood donation camp organised on the occasion.
Citing the data compiled by the Union government, he said Delhi's stock is three times its blood requirement.
Maharashtra has 146 per cent more blood than it requires, Gujarat and Kerala 135 per cent and West Bengal 105 per cent, he said.
The former deputy chief minister said Bihar needs 10.3 lakh blood units every year and a meagre 1.10 lakh units are available.
Six districts, including Araria and Jamui, lack blood banks, he said.
The senior BJP leader said that in 2015-16, 550 blood donation camps were organised in Bihar as compared to 12,000 in West Bengal and 2,000 in Odisha.
Modi used the occasion, which saw the presence of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, to highlight the "poor handling" of donated blood due to non-availability of Component Separation Unit that segregates blood into plasma, platelets and RBCs.
"At present 6 component separation units are available at IGIMS, Patna, and one each in Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga," he said and demanded that the apparatus be made available in every medical college and hospital in the state.
The BJP leader also exhorted legislators to donate eyes and organs after death.
As per the figures of the Union government, Bihar contributed just 30 eyes to 58,810 donated in 2015-16, which Tamil Nadu gave 11,000, Telangana 6,171 and Gujarat 8,436.
He rued that there was only one eye bank at IGIMS in Bihar.
