Guwahati High Court: Baksa district to get blood bank

Post Date: Friday, June 14, 2019

Date: 21.05.2019

Baksa District will finally get blood bank thanks to a PIL filed by a Guwahati High Court Advocate Alin Mahanta with support from Human rights law network (HRLN). 

Guwahati High court on Tuesday directed the state government to run a blood bank at the civil hospital in Baksa district. The state government on Monday informed the court that it had got the license from the Centre on May to operate a blood bank. 

A PIL which was filed in 2016, was a result of an RTI filed by Mahanta to ascertain which districts in Assam had required blood bank facilities. In the PIL she had mentioned the failure to provide blood transfusion to pregnant women in Baksa district and the non-implementation of Indian Public Health Standards’ blood storage requirements in hospitals and health centres in the districts. 

“We are thankful to the court for looking into this matter. people in Baksa will now have a blood bank in their district,” HRLN member Debasmita Ghosh said. 

The PIL also mentions the absence of basic facility requirements which was in violation of Article 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution and of an international obligation under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the International Convention on Economic Social and Cultural Rights. 

The RTI said that only Baksa and Udalgiri districts lacked blood banks. 

A different PIL for Udalgiri was filed by HRLN in 2016. 

A fact-finding team from HRLN in March found that the basic infrastructure with proper equipment had been set up in the Udalgiri blood bank. 

https://epaper.telegraphindia.com/imageview_271175_131112312_4_77_21-05-2019_11_i_1_sf.html

The link to the order: