Chennai:
It was a tie between artist Shihan Hussaini and transport minister Senthil Balaji. Hussaini collected blood from 32 archery students and froze it to create a bust cast of chief minister J. Jayalalithaa on the eve of her birthday. Minister Balaji went the extra mile and initiated a massive blood donation drive across the state, roping in 18,215 state transport employees.
All the participants donated a minimum of 350 ml blood and the samples were sent to the nearby district GHs. The blood donation camps were held in 75 centres and most of them gave blood after finishing their duty, Mr Balaji told this news-paper.
“Initially, we wanted to rope in 16,500 staff and create a new record beating the previous feat of students where 13,000 of them donated blood in a single day. The record has been made on the eve of Amma’s birthday,” said the beaming minis-ter.
According to AIADMK party sources, all the major blood banks in the state have been alerted about the drive seeking their coordination and the collected blood was sent to the banks for segregation into platelets and other components.
Mr Hussaini, who first disclosed to DC about his feat of sculpting the CM’s burst with frozen blood, was also busy the whole day giving final touches to his work.
While blood donation camps were organised at 65 places in the city, party legislators organised medical camps. Saidapet MLA G. Senthamizhan announced the distribution of welfare aid to the public for 65 days and to organise poor feeding to mark the AIADMK supremo’s birthday.
Senior party member, finance minister O.Panneerselvam and Chennai mayor Saidai Duraisamy pulled Goddess Kalikambal’s silver chariot, praying for the long life and more laurels for their leader.
source: http://www.DeccanChronicle.com / Home> News> Current Affairs / DC, Chennai – by S. Thirunavukarasu / February 24th, 2013