Blood banks not expected to run dry this summer 
TIMES NEWS NETWORK  2 April 05

Mumbai: Summer has traditionally been a time when blood banks run dry, but this year may be different. Governmental agencies and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) have charted out a series of blood donation drives from April to June to tackle the usual summer shortage. 
Dr Sanjay Jadhav of the State Blood Transfusion Council (STBC), which was set up over five years ago to implement the National Blood Policy’s guidelines, says there will be no shortage this year. His assertion is echoed by Vinay Shetty, who has for years been coordinating donation drives for many blood banks. 
Shortages have been the result of vacations at colleges, the most common venues for donation drives, and the flight of people from the city during the grimy months. “But this year officials of many public blood banks told me that they are confident of not having any shortfall because of the forthcoming drives,’’ says Shetty. 
Blood bank officials trace this near-sufficiency graph to the SBTC’s networking efforts with various social organisations and NGOs. Jadhav says, “We are holding multiple drives, each generating about 2,000 to 3,000 units of blood, so that our blood banks won’t face a shortage on a day-to-day basis.’’ 
Actually, the series of drives began in March itself—an interstate drive on March 5 in Surat saw 3,000 units being generated for Mumbai and another by the Lions Club of Vile Parle generated 2,254 units. April will witness drives by social organisations led by Aniruddha Bapu, Sant Nirankarni, the Shree Limbdi Ajramar Sampraday, Tarun Mitra Mandal and others.

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