Tamluk, March 27: The chief medical officer of health in East Midnapore today refused to send any doctor from the district blood bank to a camp to be organised in April by a Trinamul leader who promised to give non-stick pans to donors.

The Trinamul leader eventually withdrew his offer after the health department insisted that luring people to donate blood through "gifts" was against the government's policy.

The announcement of the camp on April 16 was posted on a WhatsApp group this morning by Bamdeb Guchhait, the deputy chief of the Trinamul-run Shahid Matangini panchayat samiti.

The WhatsApp image said the camp would be inaugurated by Tamluk MP Dibyendu Adhikari and added that "every blood donors will be given a non-stick pan".

Guchhait put up the image at 7.52am today. A little over an hour later, the chief medical officer of health, Nitai Chandra Mandal, replied: "Gift against blood donation is against the state policy. I condemn such practice - if the organiser still continues such advertisement being the CMOH of the district - (will) ask (district) blood bank not to attend such camp."

In Calcutta, the director of health services, Biswa Ranjan Satpathy, echoed Mandal. "It is national and state policy that gifts cannot be given for blood donation," Satpathy said.

Trinamul MP Adhikari said he was not aware if gifts were to be given to donors at the camp. "If gifts are given to donors at the camp, I will not attend it," Adhikari said.

Guchhait apologised for his "mistake" and clarified that no gifts would be given to the donors on April 16.