New Delhi: About 20,000 BSF personnel, including its chief, have pledged to donate their body organs after death as part of the organisation's initiative to mark the World Organ Donation Day on Sunday.

The country's largest border-guarding force, with 2.65 lakh personnel in its ranks, today handed over the names of the personnel and their families, who have committed to the initiative, to the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) at an event here.

A senior Border Security Force officer said the initiative was launched by the force last year and till now about 20,000 personnel and their families have pledged their commitment to it.

Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju lauded the noble gesture of the paramilitary force saying that such an initiative is important as many "precious lives are lost" in the country because the patients do not get organ donors.

Rijiju praised BSF chief K K Sharma, who along with his family, has also taken the pledge.

"More and more personnel of the force will be undertaking the pledge in the days to come," the officer said.

The BSF is tasked to secure important Indo-Pak and Indo- Bangla borders apart from a variety of roles in the internal security domain of the country.

The World Organ Donation Day is observed every year on August 13.