Following allegations of harassment by the Bengaluru Rural District Family Welfare Officer against the jurisdictional District Health Officer (DHO) concerning the investigation into the female foeticide case in two hospitals, the State Health Department has ordered a probe into the issue.
Bengaluru Rural District Family Welfare Officer S.R. Manjunath has alleged that the DHO, Sunil Kumar, has been harassing him for continuing investigation and registering cases against two private hospitals in Hoskote and Nelamangala taluks that have been accused of running a sex determination racket.
In December last, the Bengaluru police unearthed a prenatal sex determination racket across Bengaluru, Mandya, and Mysuru districts. They arrested a doctor and his lab technician, who allegedly performed around 900 illegal abortions in the last three years. The State government had, in the first week of January, constituted a task force for the PCPNDT Act implementation under the chairmanship of the Health Commissioner
Letter to Commissioner
Complaining about the harassment, Dr. Manjunath (who is also the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques nodal officer in the district), wrote to State Health Commissioner Randeep D. on March 20. In his capacity as the district PCPNDT nodal officer, Dr. Manjunath had registered FIRs against SPG Hospital in Hoskote and Asare Hospital in Nelamangala, accusing them of running prenatal sex determination rackets.
In the letter, Dr. Manjunath sought permission to go on leave as Dr. Kumar was not allowing him to discharge his duties concerning the investigation into the sex determination racket. He also informed the Commissioner that he was working under extreme stress.
Prior to this, Dr. Kumar wrote to the Commissioner on March 19 appealing him to transfer Dr. Manjunath because “his report regarding the two hospitals was not factually correct and that he was not properly discharging his duties.”
Panel to investigate
Acknowledging the letters, Mr. Randeep told The Hindu that a three-member committee headed by the Reproductive Child Health Project Director, the Deputy Director (PCPNDT), and the Deputy Director (Family Welfare) has been set up to investigate the allegations. The committee has been asked to look into the allegations of both the doctors as well as the violation of the PCPNDT Act by the two hospitals and submit its report by March 26, he said.
