How we thought of establishing a Blood Centre
DDA had allotted 10 acres of land in Vasant Kunj to the Rotary Eco Foundation for planting 10,000 trees. On September 14, 1994 , while one of the Club Presidents, Shri Ashok Kapur was supervising the arrangements for the launch of the project by Shri L.K. Advani, scheduled for September 16, 1994 , he was shot dead by the land mafia. Overwhelmed with grief, the Rotary Clubs abandoned the Tree Plantation Project. Later on, the Rotary leadership decided to set up a Voluntary Blood Centre as a tribute to Ashok Kapur, a Rotarian who laid down his life on a Rotary Project under the guidance of Late Past Rotary International Director (PRID) Sudarshan Agarwal.
Founder : – Mr. Sudarshan Agarwal
Late PRID Sudarshan Agarwal (19 June 1931 – 3 July 2019) was an Indian civil servant who served as Governor of Uttarakhand (2003–2007) and Sikkim (2007–2008).
Sudarshan Agarwal joined the judicial service of Punjab and Delhi in 1956, after completing his education. Till 1971, he served as a judicial officer.
Later he joined as the Rajya Sabha Secretariat in the year 1971. He served the post with distinction in various capacities till 1981. After that he was brought up to the top post of Secretary General to the Rajya Sabha and held this office for a period of 12 years. In 1986, while still holding this office, he was promoted to the rank and status of cabinet Secretary to the Government of India.
He was appointed to the National Human Rights Commission, after his retirement from the Rajya Sabha. With the rank and status of a Judge of the Supreme Court, he joined the Human Rights Commission. In June 2001, he retired from the NHRC. Shri Agarwal, on 8 January 2003, was sworn in as the second Governor of the newly created state of Uttaranchal. Later he was appointed Governor of Sikkim on 19 August 2007.
PRID Sudarshan Agarwal has been significantly allied with a number of social and charitable causes, apart from holding high public office. He has been the President of the high-status Delhi Gymkhana Club for two years.
He, as a director of Rotary International from 1987-1989, also delineated South-East Asia on the board of Rotary International and also served as the Chairman of Rotary Foundation India.
The Rotary Blood Centre (earlier known as Rotary Blood Bank), New Delhi was set up under his leadership, at a cost of over Rs 5 crores. He served as trustee of the Rotary service to Humanity Awards Trust and the Rotary Manav Sewa Award Trust, Shri Agarwal has campaigned to weed out corruption from public life.
He also set up a Boarding School for bright girls from impoverished families of Uttarakhand which is free for these girls for their education, food, uniforms, toiletries, hostel stay and all other needs. The School is recognized by CBSE for Class V to XII.
Rotary Blood Centre, Delhi (Formerly Rotary Blood Bank, Delhi) is the second largest public service initiative taken up by the clubs in Rotary Districts 3011 & 3012 (earlier known as undivided District 3010), the first being the Institute Rotary Cancer Hospital at AIIMS.
The Blood Centre is a 15,000 sq. ft centrally air-conditioned state-of-the-art facility set up on 1500 sq. meters in Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi . We raised over Rs. 5 crores for this dream project. Rotary International gave a grant of Rs. 2 crores while the Central Government and the Delhi Government gave Rs. 53 lakh as support for the project. Considering the need for a Blood Bank run on voluntary blood donations in the context of the increasing threat of HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B & C, five Members of the Parliament, namely Dr. Karan Singh, Dr. Sahib Singh Verma, Smt. Ambika Soni, Dr. A. R. Kidwai and Shri F.S. Nariman each gave Rs. 20 lakhs to the Rotary Blood Bank from their Local Area Development Fund. One of our Rotarians Shri Trilok Nath, IPS, a former Inspector General of Police donated Rs 80 lakhs in the memory of his wife Smt. Sarojini Nath.
Our mission statement is “No one shall suffer in Delhi and neighbouring areas for want of blood.”
We have acquired most sophisticated Blood Banking equipment worth over Rs. 2 crores. We have highly qualified staff to run the Blood Centre. Our main emphasis is on encouraging the medical fraternity to use blood components instead of whole blood. By use of components, optimum utilization of blood can be obtained and 3 to 4 lives can be helped with just one unit of blood. At Rotary Blood Centre, we do not ask for replacement donors who could also be paid donors. We want to discourage the clandestine sale of blood. It is well known that several semi nourished people, drug addicts and other persons short of money for smack, etc. donate blood for money.
We are organizing voluntary blood donation camps in and around Delhi to encourage the voluntary blood donation movement. As a result, high-quality blood, fully tested against all infections is available to people in life threatening situations. We have a modest processing charge for providing blood/blood components to those in need. Any person who cannot afford the processing charge is given blood free of charge. The service charge is intended to take care of running of the Blood Centre, which includes salary for a staff of 25 persons, cost of donor bags, testing equipment, consumables, electricity charges and several other operational costs.
Rotary Blood Centre was inaugurated by the Union Minister Shri L.K. Advani on March 1, 2001 in the presence of the Union Health Minister, Lt. Governor, Chief Minister and the Health Minister of NCT of Delhi who were our guests of honour.
Ours is a commitment to serve society. Nearly 1000 Rotarians and other socially sensitive persons/institutions have contributed for this humanitarian project.