PMC records list 45 non-existent sonography centres: survey

The PMC needs to update its list of registered centres,said activist and national inspection monitoring committee member Varsha Deshpande.

Deshpande,along with Gandhi,is planning to issue a show cause notice to the civic body to know why the sonography centres were registered when they could not be located in the city. “For instance,the PMC mentions Agrawal Diagnostics Centre – PNDT0386 as a registered centre at Dhankawadi. However,we found that it does not exist and instead there was an advocate’s office at the same location,” said Gandhi. Similarly,sonography centre Athavale sonography clinic – PNDT0397 was closed four years ago and a restaurant is now functional at the address in Karve Nagar. The centre is registered as a sonography centre by the PMC.

Gandhi who had informed chief medical officer of PMC Dr R R Pardeshi and Additional Director of State Family Welfare Bureau Dr Suresh Gupta about the survey said out of 349 centres,112 refused to give information while their volunteers found that 45 centres had shut down.

Local appropriate authority in the PMC implementing the PC-PNDT Act Dr Vaishali Jadhav told Newsline that they were in the process of updating the list of registered centres. “We have 550 odd sonography centres and these also include the ones that are shut down. So far a total of 41 cases have been filed against doctors for flouting the PC-PNDT Act. A total of 17 cases have been decided out of which 14 are in the civic body’s favour,”Jadhav said.