Need watertight law to nail culprits, say top health officials

PCPNDT in-charge for state writes to higher authorities proposing amendment in act that will make law on female foeticide foolproof

Need watertight law to nail culprits, say top health officials

PCPNDT in-charge for state writes to higher authorities proposing amendment in act that will make law on female foeticide foolproof

Ifu00a0you want legal cases to be watertight against errant doctors, make the law on female foeticide foolproof.
That seems to be the tone of the letter which Dr Suresh Gupta, additional director of Family Welfare Department, has sent to his top bosses along with a proposal listing amendments required in the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act.

Tighten the law: The law should prohibit the purchase of sonography
machines by a person who is not a radiologist, says Dr Suresh Gupta,
additional director of Family Welfare Department. Today, even a layman
can buy the machine as long as he employs a radiologist. representation
pic

There has been a statewide crackdown on sonography and abortion clinics in recent days, after the discovery of nine female foetuses in a drain in Beed district. The action acquired a sense of urgency as the incident came on the heels of a recent Census report that showed the sex ratio had worsened in state in the last decade.

Since June 17, a total of 5,964 sonography machines have been inspected and 271 of them sealed. About 20 such machines have been sealed in the city and its vicinity. Besides that, 2009 abortion clinics have been raided, of which 74 have been derecognised after irregularities in following the law were found. Dr Gupta said that merely conducting raids was not enough as the loopholes in the law also need to get corrected.

"The first amendment in the law that we suggested is that one radiologist be attached to only two sonography centres. He current scenario is that one radiologist shows he is attached to 10 centres but goes to only two. Even he isn't aware what is happening under his name at the others or whether qualified people are doing it.

Secondly, the act currently allows any person to buy a sonography machine as long as he employs a
radiologist. This means even a layman can buy it, but we want only a doctor who has studied radiology to be allowed to purchase the machines," said Gupta. He also said that the PCPNDT Act needs to be modified to define who is a sonologist.

"Currently, the act says even a registered medical practitioner, who could even be an ayurvedic or homoeopathic doctor with six months training in radiology, is defined as a sinologist, which we want them to amend," he said.

Gupta has also recommended that portable sonography machines be discontinued. He also suggests the formation of a new district task force to oversee the implementation of the act. "The task force is to be headed by the Collector and will have police, education officials as well as social welfare and publicity officials. This task force is over and above the existing committees operating for PCPNDT Act and will see to it that implementation is happening properly," he said.

MiD DAY was the first to report in a series last week that the Family Welfare Department had proposed the formation of a task force and the banning of portable ultrasound clinics.

Court case against Symbiosis University of Health Sciences authorities
The Family Welfare Department has registered a court case on July 11 against authorities of the Symbiosis University of Health Sciences. The sonography machine at the university had been sealed under a routine inspection of the family welfare officials, after it was found that the institute did not maintain obstetric sonography records, as prescribed by law.