18 June 2011
By Umesh Isalkar
Pune,India
The civic body on Friday suspended the licences of as many as nine sonography centres in the city for violation of various provisions of the PCPNDT (Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques) Act, 1994.
This is for the first time in Maharashtra wherein action has been initiated against the sonography centres on such a large scale, Milind Salunkhe, special advocate (PCPNDT Act) of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), said.
The suspension period ranges from 15 days to two months. The centres whose registration has been suspended are in Bibvewadi, Dhankawadi, Baner, Salisbury Park and Hadapsar.
’During routine inspections in the last two months, irregularities such as non-maintenance of records, purchasing of sonography machines without permission and nonrenewal of licences were found. We sealed the machines, filed criminal cases and issued showcause notices to the erring doctors. We heard them before suspending their licences. The action was taken after seeking advice from the civic body’s advisory committee,’ Vaishali Jadhav, appropriate authority, PMC, said.
The PMC has already filed criminal cases against the erring centres. ’More than 16 doctors involved in running these centres are facing criminal charges,’ said Jadhav.
’The registration of the nine centres was suspended under section 20 (1 and 2) of PCNDT Act. Section 20 (1) empowers the appropriate authority to issue show-cause notice to the violators. While section 20 (2) empowers the appropriate authority to take action against the violators, either in the form of suspension or cancellation of registration, after giving the hospitals and sonography centres an opportunity of hearing and after taking advice from the advisory committee,’ said Salunkhe.
’During the suspension period, centres will not be able to operate sonography machines for any purpose. Suspension of registration is a civil action independent of criminal proceedings,which are going on before honorable criminal courts. During this period, erring centres will not be able to install new machines,’ Salunkhe said. ’Once the period is over, the suspension would get revoked immediately and work restarted.’
’In 2008,when the central inspection and monitoring committee, along with appropriate authority had detected some irregularities in five hospitals in Pune,they proceeded further for suspending the licences without following the principles of natural justice, including issuance of show-cause notice and offering of an opportunity of hearing. Hence, the higher state authority had set aside the suspension orders then, Salunkhe said.
All sonography centres sealed in Parali-Vaijanath
Pune: The state government sealed one more sonography centre in Parali-Vaijanath taluka of Beed district on Friday. In a biggest-ever crackdown in the region in the last four days, all the 13 sonography centres in the area have been closed down for blatantly violating norms. Perhaps, this is the first such major action in the state, indicating the government’s serious intention of checking the skewed sex ratio.
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