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indianexpress: The national surveillance cell that has been conducting surprise checks at diagnostic clinics to check female foeticide across the country, sealed three ultrasound machines at city-based Jehangir Hospital and another three ultrasound machines at Ruby Hall Clinic on Tuesday for violating the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC-PNDT) Act.

The surprise raids were conducted by a three-member team of the national monitoring and implementation committee headed by Sushma Taishete, under secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. “Both hospitals have not maintained and preserved the records at the ultrasound department. Form F which has to be filled by the doctor giving details of the pregnant woman are not filled. The doctor’s signatures are not found in the records,” Taishete told media persons after conducting the four-hour raids.

The raids, which took the hospital authorities by surprise, was resisted. Ruby Hall Clinic trustee Dr Purvez Grant and the central team members had an argument after the raid was over and the machines sealed. “Let us be fair. We have not done anything majorly wrong and we are not involved in determining the sex of the foetus. These are minor irregularities,”Grant said.

“We have 180 ICU beds. Sealing all the machines would cause problems and we will fail to provide our services during an emergency,” Grant appealed. The team relented and sealed only three machines. “One machine would be allowed for basic emergency work,” Taishete said.

At Jehangir Hospital, the team along with Pune Municipal Corporation Appropriate Authority Dr D D Chandakkar sealed three machines. “We found that details of six patients who underwent an ultrasound on Tuesday at the OPD were not recorded in the Form F. This is a violation of the Act,” Taishete said.

However, Dr A S Kinare, head of the ultrasound department at Jehangir Hospital said the deficiencies pointed out by the team were only in the documentation pertaining to the patient’s addresses and family history. These deficiencies in no way reflect the issue of sex determination.
 

indianexpress: The Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) guidelines by the State government have drawn sharp reactions from leading activists in the city who said it was a case of the slum dwellers being cheated.

Architect Pratima Joshi of Shelter Associates that works with slum dwellers said she was concerned as on one hand the city is getting JNNURM which is based upon a participatory approach while on the other the SRA is leaving a whole lot of people at the whims and fancies of private developers and builders.
 
“Are we using slums as a front for pushing the vested interests of a certain lobby,” she asked while pointing out that increasing the FSI up to 3 will not help the city in any way. “It will only increase the pressure on the city. We do not want Pune to be held to ransom this way”.

Baba Adhav, who has been fighting for the cause of the poor, said the slum dwellers have been cheated by the State government. “The government was promoting private interests in the guise of a social cause. But it was amply clear now that by providing a mere 270 sq ft tenement, the government had played a cruel joke on the slum dwellers,” he said.

Adhav was critical of the SRA’s mantra of throwing out those who did not show consent to the scheme, saying, “the poor have been cleverly cornered by the government.”

The SRA also came as a rude shock to all political parties whose poll manifestos promised 500 sq ft tenements to slum dwellers in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad only last month.

The Congress had gone to town claiming that Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had cleared the tenement size and directed the state officials that consent of 70 per cent slum dwellers will be mandatory for an SRA scheme.

Congress city unit chief Abhay Chhajed and party leader Ulhas Bagul have shot off a letter to the chief minister requesting him to amend the guidelines and introduce provisions promised by him from time to time. “You (Deshmukh) yourself had made the assurances at an election rally in Sarasbaug. So please reconsider the guidelines,” Chhajed and Bagul said in the letter.

indianexpress:  Stressing that India’s progress was getting hampered due to large number of people depending on agriculture for source of livelihood, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today said that quality education should be made available to all to change the situation.

Pawar, who is also the president of Akhil Bharatiya Maratha Shikshan Parishad — apex body of educational institutions for masses — was speaking at a function organised to mark the parishad’s centenary year celebrations. He inaugurated the extended building of the parishad’s Shri Shahu Mandir College and performed bhoomi poojan of the proposed girl’s hostel building on the campus.

Pointing out that 93 per cent of students were leaving education halfway, Pawar said most of them came from agriculturist families. “If students leave education halfway, they depend on agriculture for livelihood. In 1947, the population was 35 crore and 70 per cent of the people depended on agriculture. Today the population is 106 crore while 60 per cent people depend on agriculture,” he said. “On the other hand, use of land for non-agriculture purpose is also increasing. As a result, farmers’ holdings are getting marginalised. A survey has revealed that 84 per cent of the agriculturists in India had less than two acres of land. This increasing dependence on agriculture is affecting India’s growth adversely. To change this situation, quality education should be made available to all.”

Pawar emphasised that educational courses should be introduced in accordance with the need of skills required to get jobs. “In Pune, some 20,000 jobs will come up in Information Technology industry in the next three months. With a number of automobile units coming up in Pune and surroundings, some 2.5 lakh jobs will be created in automobile sector in the next two to three years. If the local youth is not qualified to take the jobs, these opportunities will go to people from elsewhere,” he said.