Karimganj, Assam:
Twenty motorcyclists on Thursday left for Wagah, bordering Pakistan, to generate awareness on blood donation. The rally, organized by the Barak Valley Voluntary Blood Donors' Forum to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, was kicked off from Sutarkandi in Karimganj district, bordering Bangladesh.
The rally will move through 150 districts of the country and later assemble at Wagah, a village in Punjab, bordering Pakistan from where they will again return back to Sutarkandi on February 7, covering a distance around 8,600 kilometre distance.
It will move through eight state capitals of the country- Shillong, Guwahati, Kolkata, Ranchi, Lucknow, Delhi and Chandigarh. Among the 20 participants, there are seven government employees with the oldest participant being 63-year old retired government employee Hiralal Debnath and the youngest 24-year old student Biswa Kalyan Purkayastha.
The Forum will hold street corner meetings to disseminate the messages of voluntary blood donation. Forum Secretary Ashu Paul said that this was an attempt to create mass awareness on blood donation and to clear all misconceptions associated about it.
"There are so many people who still feel scared to donate blood. The rally is an attempt to increase awareness in the community on safe and sustainable blood donation," he said. The rallyists would also meet President of India Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan on their way to Wagah.