Lucknow, Nov. 5 -- The Uttar Pradesh Food Safety and Drug Administration (FSDA) has shut down 10 more blood centres with immediate effect, with the regulatory body tightening the noose around charitable blood centres. During the special inspection campaign being run across the state, large-scale irregularities came to light at blood centres, following which action was taken against the charitable blood centres. With this, the number of centres brought under action has risen to 24, a spokesperson said. The 10 collection centres shut down in the state were in Gautam Buddh Nagar, Sitapur, Prayagraj, Shahjahanpur, Sambhal, Kasganj, Ayodhya, Agra and Firozabad At many centres, blood was being issued without mandatory testing, while at some places even the standards for quality of blood components and safe storage were not being followed. Serious lapses found in the inspections of these centres included infection testing with rapid kits instead of ELISA, a temperature of 26.7 degrees Celsius in deep freezers with a capacity of -80 degrees Celsius, mould in the component room, use of expired medicines, and the absence of essential staff. Under the campaign, 158 blood centres in 62 districts have been inspected so far. In the inspections, action was taken in some cases for issuing blood without mandatory infection testing, and in others because of contaminated fresh frozen plasma (FFP), a broken cold chain and the absence of technical staff....