Chennai: For the second year in succession, Tamil Nadu has bagged the best performance award in organ transplantation on the occasion of Indian Organ Donation day on Wednesday.

Lauding its efforts both in organ donation and transplantation, the state was felicitated by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Well ahead of all other states in the country, Tamil Nadu has harvested 4,992 organs from 895 donors.

As a first-of-its-kind initiative in India, the state government has formed the Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu, an independent agency to take care of organ transplant needs.

As organ transplantation is carried out free of cost in all government hospitals in Tamil Nadu, under the state’s free health insurance scheme sanctions up to Rs. 30 lakh for transplantation in private hospitals, which is the highest in the country.