Agartala, April 11: Six blood banks in Tripura are running dry forcing relatives of patients to run from pillar to post to arrange for blood.

Sources said all six blood banks, including two here, have reported a severe shortage, especially in the negative groups.

“There is only one unit of O-negative blood in the blood bank attached to G.B. Hospital but for the rest of the negative groups there is none. There are three units of B-positive and one unit of AB-positive group,” a source in the G.B. Hospital said.

The situation in the IGM Hospital here is poor too with only 10 units of B-positive and four units of AB-positive blood available.

“The situation in the five blood banks of five sub-divisional towns, including headquarters of South and North Tripura districts, is more critical with the blood bank in Kamalpur sub-divisional hospital going completely dry. The ones in Dharmanagar, Kaila-sahar and Udaipur are also reporting major shortage, thou-gh the district hospital in Udaipur has 50 and 25 units each of B-positive and AB-positive blood,” the source said.

But the situation was not this grave always. Over the past five years, Tripura has emerged as one of the leading states in the country where voluntary donation takes care of blood requirement of 90 per cent of patients.

The state government last year announced that after Maharashtra and West Bengal, Tripura had achieved the third place in terms of voluntary donations and was well on course of achieving the first position.

The ball had been set rolling by schoolteacher Nibir Sen, 46, who had launched Tripura Voluntary Blood Donors Association in 2000 and continued to work tirelessly to motivate people to donate blood. Subsequently, chief minister Manik Sarkar had taken up the issue and turned it into a movement.

The chairman of the state blood transfusion council, Jotirmay Das, said the crisis would blow over.

“Every year there is a lean period between the months of February and April in voluntary donations because of board and university examinations and preoccupation of students and guardians. But from the first week of May donations will again start in full swing,” said Das.

He, however, refused to comment on the easy availability of blood in private nursing homes at a high cost.

All nine private nursing homes in Agartala have been providing blood to patients but the authorities refused to speak on the matter.

Bikash Dhar, a teacher of girls’ high school in Udaipur, headquarters of South Tripura district, had been denied blood for his ailing mother admitted at G.B. Hospital. But as soon as he shifted his mother to privately-run Lifeline Nursing Home, blood became available at a higher cost.

Sources in G.B. Hospital alleged that large quantities of blood from the blood banks in hospitals were being sold to private nursing homes showing them as “spoilt” or “contaminated”.

“Without a proper investigation by experts the mystery will never be unearthed though Tripura may continue to lead the other states in terms of voluntary donation,” the source said.