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Act fast against doctors charged with female foeticide, Govt. told

Special Correspondent

Women's groups ask Minister to act upon cases against 64 doctors exposed by media

JAIPUR: Women's groups met Rajasthan Minister for Health Dijamber Singh here on Tuesday to demand legal action against 64 doctors who have been charged with female foeticide and conducting of sex determination tests. They demanded issuing of challans against the doctors as well as cancellation of their registration.

Several cases of sex determination tests and violation of the PC and PNDT Act (Pre Conception and Pre Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994) in Rajasthan have been unearthed by various agencies since April this year but the State Government has not acted on them with alacrity, a women's delegation, which met the Minister, said.

The groups, led by Pawan Surana, former chairperson, Rajasthan Women's Commission, asked the Minister to act upon the cases against 64 doctors who were exposed by a private television channel in April last in their acts of violation of the PC and PNDT Act. More cases of female foeticide have been unearthed since then in various parts of the State, they pointed out.

The activists said the appearance of three unclaimed female fetuses in Fateh Sagar Lake in Udaipur last week and detection of a female foetus in a bag belonging to a couple in Bharatpur town were indications of the continuance of the malaise, despite the public outcry over such cases. In Udaipur and Bharatpur, the Chief Medical and Health Officers -- who are the Competent Authority under the Act -- should have taken action under its Section 25, they said.

The team, which included Kavita Srivastava, Nishant Hussain, Mita Singh, Teja Ram, Shubh Lakshmi, Vijay Lakshmi Joshi, Mohammed Hussain and Shukat Bhattacharya, noted that out of the 64 doctors exposed by the TV channel, only 21 were issued challans till May 15 last.

In the whole of India only 391 cases have been registered under the PC and PNDT Act (till June) and only in one case (in Haryana) conviction has taken place. Rajasthan now has 64 cases though first information reports have been lodged only in 21 complaints.

"Under medical ethics, etiquette ethics and under code of conduct all the 64 of them should be suspended from service," Ms.Srivastava noted.

The women's groups have announced a protest rally against female foeticide in Udaipur on August 19 and another in the State capital on August 23.

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