The Union health ministry has finally shelved its plan to establish the National Blood Transfusion Authority (NBTA) due to stiff opposition from the union finance ministry which had some time back shot down the proposal on the plea that the health ministry failed to clearly specify the mandate even after several revisions of the proposal.

According to sources in the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), an arm of the Union health ministry, the proposal to establish a national blood transfusion authority has been shelved for now. The issue of establishing the NBTA is no more in the agenda of the ministry, sources said and added that years of hard work has gone waste.

Apart from the finance ministry, different government departments had also taken objections to various clauses in the draft bill, which was prepared by the NACO, sources said.

The NBTA was being planned to regulate all activities related to the blood collection and transfusion and was to make good laboratory practices mandatory for the blood banks in the country. There are more than 2300 licensed blood banks in the country and health ministry is providing technical and financial support to around 1230 of the public and charitable blood banks. India already has a National Blood Policy and a National Blood Programme to ensure adequate supply of safe and quality blood. But the new legislation was proposed to define the roles of these authorities clearly and ensure quality of blood banks and infection-free transfusions.

The proposal to establish the NBTA was initiated during the year 2008-09 under NACP phase-III. The original timeline for setting up the NBTA was April, 2010. But it got delayed due to the objections of different departments. Now that the ministry of finance has refused permission 'due to lack of clear mandate', the health ministry has scrapped the proposal, sources said.

Recently the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare had also expressed its dismay over the delay in the proposal. “Though the original timeline for starting NBTA was April, 2010, there is still no ray of hope of its being set in near future. The Committee condemns such procrastinating attitude of the government. The Committee impresses upon the Department that in order to ensure setting up of a NBTA, it is imperative that immediate steps should be taken to remove the legal infirmities and seek replies from respective Departments without further delay,” the report by the panel said.

Meanwhile, there are allegations that that the stiff opposition from existing blood banks in the private sector has forced the health ministry to scrap the proposal to establish the NBTA.