Forum for Durgotsav organises blood donation camp

Kolkata: Forum For Durgotsav, an umbrella organisation of 400 odd community pujas in Kolkata and its suburbs, organised a mega blood donation camp at Netaji Indoor Stadium on Sunday where about 3548 volunteers

donated blood.

“This is the 8th year of our blood donation camp at such a grand scale. Last year, 2623 people donated blood. This year, the number is higher. We have our branch organisation in Burdwan which hosted a similar camp and was attended by 331 volunteers. About 3879 persons across the state donated blood through our initiative,” said Saswata Bose, general secretary of the Forum .

The donors will get VIP passes for almost all the big ticket pujas in the city under the umbrella organisation of the Forum. “Due to the Lok Sabha elections and the summer, there were few blood donation camps,” a Forum member said.

Bose said that the blood collected will be donated to 21 government-run blood banks across the state and will help address the dearth of blood stock to a reasonable extent.

Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, state Power minister Aroop Biswas, state Finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharjee, among others, were present during the camp and encouraged the initiative.