Chandigarh, November 18 – Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Department, Sh. Sudhir Rajpal has directed district administrations and health officers across the state to work in close coordination and make concerted efforts to raise the sex ratio to 920 this year. Taking strict action, he ordered the suspension of two health officers for negligence in achieving the expected improvement in their districts.
During a video conference with Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents of Police of the six low-performing districts namely Sirsa, Sonipat, Yamunanagar, Charkhi Dadri, Nuh and Jhajjar, Sh. Sudhir Rajpal directed them to take proactive steps to improve the sex ratio in collaboration with the civil surgeons.
He also directed the Deputy Commissioners of these districts to carry out reverse tracking of illegal abortion cases and intensify monitoring.
Sh. Sudhir Rajpal further directed officers to ensure mandatory registration of all newborns, especially in urban slum clusters in coordination with municipal bodies. He encouraged district teams to enhance the state’s overall performance on sex-ratio indicators.
Before this, the Additional Chief Secretary chaired a meeting of the State Task Force on improving the sex ratio, where several important decisions were taken to strengthen surveillance, curb gender-determination practices, and crack down on illegal abortions.
Taking a serious view of falling numbers, Sh. Sudhir Rajpal ordered the suspension of the Medical Officer of PHC Jattanwali in Sirsa and the SMO of Halalpur in Sonipat for negligence resulting in a decline in sex-ratio figures.
In the meeting it was decided that the CDRs of individuals involved in illegal MTPs and sex-determination activities will now be submitted in courts as evidence to ensure stringent legal action.
Sh. Sudhir Rajpal also directed the development of an MIS portal for tracking all PNDT-related court cases. He said the Home Secretary of Haryana will be requested through a letter to allow PNDT cases to be taken up in POCSO courts for faster disposal. Considering the low conviction rate in PNDT cases, the department has also decided to explore the possibility of appointing or attaching a set of specialised lawyers at the state headquarters to pursue cases more effectively.
The Additional Chief Secretary directed all Civil Surgeons to prepare a line-list of every clinic, nursing home and hospital run by BAMS/GAMS/BHMS practitioners in their districts, clearly identifying how many have registered gynaecologists and how many are authorised MTP centres.
He further directed the officers to prepare a proposal that a gynecologist will not be allowed to perform abortions at more than two centers, taking into account all legal aspects, so that it can be presented to the government for approval.
Director General Health Services, Dr. Manish Bansal, Dr. Kuldeep Singh, Dr. Virender Yadav, Dr. Simmi Verma, Dr. Mukta Kumar along with other senior officers also attended the meeting.
