People collect blood at the Red Cross Blood Bank in Cuttack. Telegraph picture

Cuttack, June 17: The Central Red Cross Blood Bank here has been embroiled in a fresh controversy with a PIL filed in Orissa High Court seeking intervention against collection of “excess blood” from voluntary donors.

The PIL, filed by Cuttack resident A. Uma Maheswar Rao, 30, alleged that the blood bank had been “extracting excess blood” at the cost of causing “weakness of the donors.” Acting on the PIL, the court has issued a notice to the state government.

The PIL stated that blood was being extracted in 450ml bags from the donors, but it was supplied to patients in 350ml bags. “The bank is collecting blood free of cost. But, the excess 100ml blood, used for creating plasma, is sold to private nursing homes and hospitals,” Rao alleged. He has sought the court’s direction for a CBI enquiry into the “illegal action”.

“The division bench of Chief Justice A.K. Goel and Justice A.K. Rath, before which the PIL came up for hearing today, adjourned the matter till August 4 for hearing along with reply from the state government,” petitioner counsel Dilip Ray said.

“Accordingly, the court issued notices to the chief secretary, apart from secretary and director of the health and family welfare department to file responses by then,” Ray said.

Blood bank director Benudhar Satpathy, however, said collection of blood from donors in 450ml bags was legal and “a normal practice”. “The blood bank collects blood from donors in both 350ml and 450ml bags. More so, 450ml blood is collected only from donors having weight of over 55kg,” Satpathy said.

“The average per day collection from voluntary donors by the blood bank is around 100 units or 100 bags, and the collection in 350ml and 450ml bags is in 70:30 ratios,” he said.

Cuttack District Blood Donor Motivation Association secretary Ratan Sinha said: “Such misinformation is sending a wrong message to blood donors.”

Earlier, the blood bank had been entangled in a controversy for selling blood plasma to a private company.

The controversy triggered last month when media reports raised questions on the legitimacy of the decision to sell blood plasma to a private company at a time when the state was facing acute blood shortage.

Acting on a complaint, the National Human Rights Commission issued a notice to the health and family welfare secretary on May 20 and ordered for submission of a report within four weeks of receipt of notice.

The State Blood Transfusion Council and the Odisha State AIDS Control Society decided to sell blood plasma at a joint meeting on April 29. Subsequently, the blood bank sold nearly 200 units of blood plasma to the private company.