ROPAR: The Punjab government has decided to open 75 eye donation collection centres in the state.

While giving this information the Minister for medical education Tikshan Sud said that, societies have been registered at three government medical colleges located at Patiala, Amritsar and Faridkot to open eye banks.

These eye banks will have the facility to store donated eyes and for their transplantation.

Earlier, there was an eye bank at Government Medical College, Patiala.

However, after a scam in which it was alleged that eyes of inmates of Pingalwara Ashram at Patiala were taken out without the consent of their kin came to the fore, doctors posted at medical colleges and other government hospitals stopped accepting donated eyes.

The minister said the first such eye donation collection centre had been opened at Hoshiarpur. The remaining centres would be opened soon to help the health authorities counter the menace of blindness.