Until 2008, the city’s oldest and leading eye centre, the Eye Bank Coordination and Research Centre (EBCRC) in Parel, would transfer surplus corneas to LV Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad. These comprised non-viable ones, unfit for transplant, which could be used for research purposes. “But in 2008, the government imposed a ban on this transfer... someone told them that we were selling them fraudulently,” Dr Quresh Maskati, ophthalmologist, eye surgeon and trustee at EBCRC, tells mid-day over a telephonic call. “They [government] believed this, and simply put a ban on the supply of corneas out of the state.” This ban not just resulted in a wastage of corneas at the eye centre, but across Maharashtra—between 2017 and last year, EBCRC had a surplus of over 1,100 corneas, many of which they were forced to dispose of.

A 15-year-long struggle followed, with the EBCRC urging the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) to lift the ban. The unwillingness to hear the plea forced the eye centre to file a petition in the Bombay High Court earlier this year. Last week, the government finally revoked the ban.