Posted by Michelle Stefan on Dec 09, 2013

Express News Service : Chandigarh, Sun Dec 08 2013, 01:43 hrs

At the awards ceremony held in the Panjab University (PU) campus, Rotary and Blood Bank Society Resource Centre honoured over 800 blood donors, camp organisers and motivators.

Only 0.07 per cent of the total blood donated in the city tests positive for HIV, making blood donation a very safe practice here, as compared to other parts of the country, said Lov Verma, Health Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, at a function organised to honour blood donors of the Tricity area.

Verma said 84.3 percent of the blood supply in India is through voluntary blood donation. "WHO has urged countries to work towards reaching the goal of obtaining 100 per cent of their blood supply through voluntary blood donation," he said.

Advisor to the Administrator K K Sharma, who was also present on the occasion, said voluntary blood donation in Chandigarh is more than the national average.

PU Vice-Chancellor A K Grover used the platform to emphasise on the fact that the university had been ranked 13 among the BRICS economies nations during a recent survey and the next target was to reach the top of the rankings. "There are a number of institutes of national importance in and around the tricity and by collaborating with these, PU can become a world-class university," he said.