Odisha to provide travel expenses to blood donors, patients

Bhubaneswar: To attract more voluntary blood donors, the state government today announced financial assistance of Rs 500 to blood donors and patients suffering from blood disorders like Thalassemia, Sickle Cell and Haemophilia.

"Blood donation is a noble work and everyone should come forward for donating blood and save others' lives. I am happy to announce that the state government will provide an assistance of Rs 500 a month to patients with blood disorders towards their transportation costs," Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said while addressing a function in Bhubaneswar to mark the Voluntary Blood Donation Day-2017 today.

For increasing public participation in voluntary blood donation programmes in rural areas, the state government has decided to provide nine more blood collection vans. Similarly, 32 walk-in coolers have been provided to several blood banks for facilitating better storage of blood. CM Naveen also said that in 2016, about 2,12,836 units of blood were collected through 3,302 blood donation camps across the state.

Patnaik also felicitated 27 organisations for their contribution in creating awareness on blood donation.

Odisha government had also launched a Rs 600 crore-Universal Eye Care programme yesterday.

https://youtu.be/xuBfW3r9tXA