The Madhya Pradesh government has initiated action against 15 diagnostic centres for flouting the norms of the Pre-Natal Diagnostics Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act, revealed the State advisory committee for monitoring the implementation of the Act on Wednesday.

The committee met at Bhopal to chalk out plans for effective implementation of the PNDT Act in Madhya Pradesh. The State Health Services Department was earlier instructed to ensure that diagnostic centres carrying out illegal sex determination tests should be closed down and the owners tried under the provisions of the Act.

The Act provides for the regulation of the use of pre-natal diagnostic techniques for the purpose of detecting genetic or metabolic disorders of chromosomal abnormalities or certain congenital malformations or sex linked disorders. It ensures the prevention of misuse of such techniques for the purpose of sex determination leading to female foeticide.

According to the official reports submitted in the meeting on Wednesday, around 744 new institutions have been registered under the PNDT Act in Madhya Pradesh in the year 2002. Out of these, 710 are government organisations while 64 are private laboratories.

The Advisory Committee, chaired by Madhya Pradesh Human Rights Commission member Shakuntala Sharma, confirmed that action was initiated against 15 organisations found flouting the norms of PNDT Act.

The committee also discussed measures to create awareness among the masses on curbing sex determination tests and to ensure proper registration of laboratories.

The meeting was attended by Madhya Pradesh Public Health and Family Welfare Director Dr Yogiraj Sharma, Law Department Additional Secretary N K Gupta, Gandhi Medical College Professor Dr B K Bharadwaj and Health Services Joint Director Dr B N Chouhan.