Siliguri, June 16: The strife in the Siliguri area last week has taken its toll not just on business. Voluntary donation camps, the mainstay of supplies to the five blood banks in the region, could not be held as planned because of frequent bandhs and clashes.

Even World Blood Donors’ Day was not observed properly on Saturday as several organisations preferred to defer the donation camps “till the situation normalised”.

As a result, storage of the blood banks has become precarious, and patients will have to rely on exchange donors.

“The situation is very bad,” said Mridumoy Das, director of the Regional Blood Transfusion Centre at the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital.

“We have only about 50 units in the (referral centre) blood bank as against the normal stock of 150 units. But the daily requirement from the blood bank continues to be 30 units a day, and we are forced to tell patients’ relatives to find donors with the required group,” he said.

“As it is, only 23 per cent of Siliguri’s requirement is met by its residents, compared to over 70 per cent in Malda. The Siliguri requirement, which is high because several hospitals and nursing homes treat accident and emergency cases, is met by units collected at donation camps in surrounding areas.”

But the very areas, where these camps are usually held, have witnessed clashes since June 8.

“We regularly collect blood through camps in Bagdogra, Naxalbari and even in the Dooars. But that has not been happening of late,” Das said.

A camp that was planned for yesterday at Tindharia, on the way to Darjeeling, was not held. The organisers said they were compelled to put off it because of the tense situation in the hills, Das said.

Another camp planned at Matigara by the DYFI, too, could not be held yesterday. In fact, only two camps were held on the World Blood Donors’ Day — Siliguri branch of the Indian Red Cross Society, where as many as 37 units were collected, and the Suryanagar Samaj Kalyan Sangstha where 17 units were drawn.

“We now have a stock of 54 units, subject to tests,” said a doctor attached to the blood bank at the Siliguri District Hospital where the units were deposited.

“But the daily requirement is about 17 to 18 units, many of which are taken by nursing homes here,” the doctor said.

The stocks at the Rotary Club of Siliguri’s blood bank have come down to 10 units, said its senior technician T.N. Dutta.

“We were supposed to have held a Blood Donors’ Week to mark June 14 (World Donors’ Day), with workshops and three camps. But nothing could be done because of the trouble,” said the club’s president Debashis Roy. “We hope to hold these camps in the near future.”

The North Bengal Voluntary Blood Bank’s stocks have also come down. “We were supposed to get some units from two camps in the Dooars this month but they have been postponed,” said Barun Biswas, the bank’s PRO.

The position at the Lions Club blood bank is better. “We hold donation camps every month, but the demand is also high, with seven units being taken away every day. We will have to hold another camp as soon as the situation gets better,” said a technician there.