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Keywords: Guragon, Kidney Racket

New Delhi: Dr Amit Kumar, the alleged mastermind of the Gurgaon kidney racket, may have escaped the police net but his misdeeds have finally moved the government to act on the organ transplant issue.

The Union Health Ministry has proposed amendments to the law, that will make organ transplantation easier and punishment stricter for violators.

“(We are doing this) so that it can become a deterrent for the doctors involved in the illegal kidney trade and at the same time facilitate the provisions for the doctors who are transplanting legally,” says Joint Secretary (Health), Vineet Chowdhary.

The Government is also planning to tackle the problem by increasing the number of organ retrieval banks.

At present, organ harvesting from clinically dead patients is possible only at the Organ Retrieval Banking Organisation of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

“Ten to 11 such institutes would be coming up across the major metros,” Chowdhary says.

Currently, the demand for organs far outstrips its supply. To address the problem, the government is starting a campaign to educate relatives of the clinically brain dead patients about the need to donate organs.

A token sum of Rs 1 crore has been earmarked for the awareness programme this year.

There is no official database as to how many patients require organs for transplant but in the wake of the kidney racket, the Health Ministry has also decided to set up an adequate database of the donors and the donator and to make the kidney transplant process more cost effective.

Government is also thinking of setting up more renal transplant facilities and also make dialysis available throughout the country in the 11th Five Year Plan.