Chennai: Tamil Nadu police has denied the allegation made by Pattali Makkal Katchi chief Dr. Ramadoss that its personnel were being coerced into donating blood at the mega camp being inaugurated by Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on June 29. Participation in the camp, being held as part of the efforts to raise public awareness on blood donation, “is entirely voluntary”, said a statement from the Assistant Inspector General (Law & Order) here on Wednesday.
Dr Ramadoss had accused the police department of holding the mega blood camp only to impress the CM and also attempt a Guinness Record for record blood collection. He said such camps were unnecessary “because people in Tamil Nadu are already well aware of the virtues of blood donation”.
Dr Ramadoss said there were “shocking reports” that instructions have been issued to all policemen under the age of 40 to compulsorily queue up as donors at the blood camp. He alleged that this act of coercion was being done “just for the sake of breaking the record collection of blood at the camp held during Jayalalithaa's birthday four years back and get into the Guinness Book”.
“There are many ways of creating good records and show achievements; for example, they could set a record by providing good governance in the state”, said the PMK chief, pointing out that Tamil Nadu tops as the largest collector of blood voluntarily donated only because of good public awareness.
TN police in its statement, without referring to Dr Ramadoss’ charge, said more than 20,000 police personnel, including officers, “have willingly come forward to donate blood” at the CM’s camp on Friday. It said the state requires about eight lakh units of blood in a year, half of which is collected by the 89 government blood banks and the rest by private blood banks.
“Blood requirement shoots up in June since the collection drops in May due to the summer vacation for colleges. These 20,000 units collected from the police personnel will be of great use to meet some of the demand, particularly in government hospitals serving the poor”, said the AIG statement.
