The new eye bank. Picture by Nityananda Sarkar

Raiganj, March 16: The first eye bank and cornea transplant centre in the region was inaugurated by Bengal industries minister, Nirupam Sen, at the North Dinajpur district hospital, here this afternoon.

“In most cases, foundation stones of many projects are laid with much fanfare and nothing comes after that. It gives me immense satisfaction that I am being able to inaugurate a centre, the foundation stone for which I myself had laid in February 2005,” Sen said in his inaugural speech.

The eye bank was opened in a joint effort by the district administration and the health department under the banner of the Blind Welfare Society.

The chairman of the Society, minister for civil defence, Srikumar Mukherjee, said for a long time people of north Bengal had been looking to pledge their eyes after death but there was no such facility available.

“People in need of cornea transplant had to travel as far as Calcutta where they had to wait for prolonged periods to have one done,” Mukherjee said.

The minister said funds from the district administration and the North Bengal Development Council helped set up the facility. “The entire set up cost Rs 1 crore. We are satisfied that there are three eye specialists connected to the district hospital and they are equipped to carry out the cornea transplants,” the minister said.

Elaborating on the pledging of eyes, Mukherjee said those who desired to do so could approach the Society at Raiganj, the landline number of which was 2342984.

“The same number can be called when a donor passes away and we will make arrangements to collect the cornea, after we verify that the name is included in the list of those who had made the pledge,” Mukherjee said.

Besides the running of the eye bank, the district health department and the Society will carry out an intensive drive to create awareness about eye donation.

“Now that we have the centre, we should spread the news about this new facility available to us,” Mukherjee said.

The chief medical officer of health of North Dinajpur, Sudhangshu Kumar Sahoo, said pledged corneas will be collected by the health department within two hours of death and it can be kept in cold packs for eight to ten hours before being stored at the new eye bank.