The Gauhati High Court on Saturday asked the Assam government to strictly follow the directions passed earlier on prevention and control of AIDS. It was hearing a suo motu PIL it had registered following media reports on five persons contracting HIV after being given contaminated blood at a hospital. A Division Bench of the court comprising Justices S.K. Sreedhar Rao and B.D. Agarwal directed the government to follow the guidelines passed in the judgment of September 26, 2000 in an earlier PIL plea. The Bench also wanted the government to implement the guidelines formulated by the National AIDS Control Organisation and asked it to submit its compliance report within a week. Asking the authorities to shut down those blood banks operating without valid license, the Bench directed that a State Transfusion Council be established to ensure that all WHO prescribed mandatory tests before transfusion be carried out.— PTI