Five scanning centres locked for PNDT Act violation

Mandya, Karnataka, June 7 (UNI) Five scanning centres attached to private nursing homes in the city were today locked by the National Inspection and Monitoring Committee for Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technique (PNDT) Act for indulging in determining the sex of the foetus.

The scanning centres were locked and the scanners seized, sources said.

The Delhi team, comprising Mr Rathan Chand, Union Additional Law Secretary M K Sharma and Dr Kamala Ram, a gynaecologist belonging to Delhi-based NGO ''Parivar Seva Samatha,'' and accompanied by Karnataka High Court Advocate M Kumar appointed by the State Government as Legal Consultant, raided various scanning centres in the city. The team had been conducting raids on scanning clinics across Karnataka.

Alarmed over the decline in the female-male sex ratio in the past 15 years, the Centre had started a nationwide crackdown on sex determination scanning clinics.

Under the Act, scanners in clinics should be registered with the District Health and Family Welfare Officer or any designated authority and keeping unregistered scanners was a crime.

Registered scanners could be utilised for medical aspects, though revealing the sex of the foetus was a crime.A fine of Rs 10,000 would be imposed on first time offenders and if caught for the second time, the licence of the clinic would be cancelled and the owner jailedfor up to six months.

UNI XR GD LS BST2030