Journalism of Courage
Even as the last six months saw the civic body setting up teams to conduct surprise inspections at sonography centres to identify those indulging in illegal sex determination,recent transfers in the health department of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) have raised questions on whether the pace would now slacken.
After the 2011 census revealed that the child sex ratio in Maharashtra had fallen drastically,the civic administration set up a PCPNDT Cell. Within six months,a team of medical officers was trained and it undertook a crash inspection programme. From June 2011 till now,19 cases were filed against doctors and radiologists under the PCPNDT Act.
On January 12,Dr R Budhkar,Dr M Khedkar,Dr S Andhale and Dr A Makhar were transferred from the PCPNDT Cell. Another order issued on January 10 has identified zonal medical officers Dr M Renukdas,Dr R Labde,Dr A Ingle and Dr M Lohar to oversee and implement the Act. This includes their other duties like managing national health programmes in the city. Dr Vaijayanti Patwardhan,member of the PCPNDT advisory committee,said it is important to accord priority to the issue. It takes months to train personnel. The momentum should not be lost, said Patwardhan.
Dr Vaishali Jadhav,the authority for implementation of PCPNDT Act,admitted that the officers had been transferred. Naresh Zurmure,additional municipal commissioner,however,said the pace of work would not be affected.
