AGARTALA, August 17 (TIWN): Chief Minister Manik Sarkar today admitted that the womenfolk couldn’t be properly involved in the state’s voluntary blood donation movement. Addressing the inaugural programme of a voluntary blood donation camp organized by Juba Samaj at Joynagar in Agartala city this afternoon, Chief Minister Sarkar said that number of women involved in blood donation is less than the number of men in the state. He urged the women to come forward in the practice.

The Chief Minister criticized the role of the Department of Health and Family Welfare and said that the authorities should look into the possibilities of deficiency in sensitization among the womenfolk. “The health department authorities and all other stakeholders should take stock of the issue and work on it”, he said.

A total of eighty donors donated blood at the blood donation camp here today.

Voluntary donors donated 92.72 percent of the required blood in 2012-2013; the figures rose to 98.67 percent in the last financial year, a source in the Tripura State Blood Transfusion Council (TSBTC) said later this afternoon.

The source further said that barely 1 percent of the entire population eligible to donate blood in the state is currently involved in the voluntary blood donation movement.