Task force to monitor spurious drug,female foeticide

Bhubaneswar,Jul 25(UNI)The Orissa government today decided to set up Task Force at district level and a monitoring committee at the state level to prevent manufacture and sale of spurious drugs and check female foeticide in the state.

This was decided at a high level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik following the recent discovery of large number of foetuses from an abandoned well and unearth of spurious drug manufacturing unit.

The Task force to prevent the circulation of spurious drug at the district level would be headed by the Collector in which the Superintendent of Police, Chief District Medical Officer and the Drug Inspector of the district would be inducted as members.

A special squad would be constituted under the Task Force which would conduct raid regularly to inspect the drugs and for which a round the clock Control room would be constituted.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik while presiding over the meeting expressed concern over the female foeticide incident in Nayagarh in which the police have so far recovered more than 100 polythene bags containing skulls and other bones of female infants dumped in an abandoned well.

The state government has already ordered a crime branch inquiry into the incident and the district authority had sealed all the ultra sound clinic operating in the Nayagarg town and arrested a doctor and his wife in connection with the incident.

The government today decided to establish a district level Task Force headed by the District Collector in which the Chief District Medical Officer and the District Social Welfare Board officer would be taken as member.

It was also decided in the meeting that the license for all Diagnostic Centre having Ultra sound machine would be strictly followed and unlicensed units would be closed down.

Similarly, all the private clinics in the state would be registered compulsory.

A monitoring cell chaired by the Chief Secretary would be constituted to supervise the Task force set up at the district level to prevent the female foeticide and sale of spurious drugs. The state Home Secretary,Principal Secretary to Health and Family Welfare and Women and Child development Secretary would be inducted as members in the monitoring committee.

UNI