Madras HC seeks reply from State on plea for removing ineligible staffs from blood banks

MADURAI: Taking a serious note of the plea to remove unqualified persons working in various departments of Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society (TANSACS) including blood banks, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court directed the Additional Advocate General (AAG) to get instructions from the government on the issue before January 8. 

The litigant S Muthukumar, an advocate from Madurai, submitted that most of the persons working in several departments in TANSACS namely blood banks, District AIDS Control and Prevention Unit (DAPCU), Integrated Counseling and Testing Centre (ICTC), Anti-retroviral Therapy (ART) centres among others, do not have the required qualification needed for the posts.

Citing an RTI report, he stated that as many as 89 persons in Tamil Nadu have contracted HIV through blood or blood-related products between October 2014 and March 2016, pointing out the recent incident where a pregnant woman contracted HIV owing to medical negligence during blood transfusion to drive home his point. 

Even the District Programme Manager (DPM) who is in charge of the Madurai DAPCU, is an economics graduate while the actual qualification for DPM is MBBS degree with two years experience in programme implementation, claimed the litigant and sought for a direction to remove such ineligible persons and appoint eligible staffs in the department and monitor the government and private blood banks in the State. 

Hearing the plea, a bench comprising Justices R Subbiah and B Pugalendhi took note of the seriousness of the issue and directed the AAG  K Chellapandian to get immediate instructions from the State government on the issue. The case has been adjourned to January 8.