As city reels from blood shortage, ruling party leaders offer blood donors a kilo of food of their choice; critics dismiss it as just a gimmick
Locals gather around the poster on the blood donation drive in Mulund. Pic/Rajesh Gupta
A kilo of chicken or paneer or fish for a unit of blood. This is on offer at blood donation camps organised by two Shiv Sena leaders in Mulund and Prabhadevi. Samadhan Sarvankar, who has organised a camp on Sunday at Prabhadevi assured donors of 1 kg chicken or paneer. "Chicken and paneer are secondary. We want people to come out and give blood," said Sarvankar. He hopes to see more than 500 donors.
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This picture has been used for representational purpose
Recently, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had urged citizens to donate blood saying there was a huge shortage of blood in blood banks in the state. In Mulund, Jagdish Shetty, a Shiv Sena office-bearer is holding a donation camp with an association of Sion Hospital and JJ Hospital blood bank. Shetty said the first 100 donors at his camp on Sunday will get pomfret, while each of the next 100 donors will be handed 1kg of chicken.
Also Read: Free blood for patients at Maharashtra government hospitals from Dec 12: Rajesh Tope
The offer by Yuva Sena leader Samadhan Sarvankar at his blood donation camp in Prabhadevi on Sunday
Vegetarian donors will get paneer. "What’s wrong if we give something as an encouragement to donors. In fact, these are healthy items that we are giving donors."
He added, "I heard that some people are opposing the initiative by calling it a ‘stunt’, but we want to tell them that rather than criticising, you too should arrange one. Ultimately, it is the common man who will benefit if there is blood in corporation-run hospitals."
Not just blood will be collected at these camps, but BMC officials will also be conducting Antigen tests and routine check-ups of the donors for COVID as well.
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