Andhra Pradesh Government announces Rs 1 lakh reward for info on sex test centres

Amaravati: The medical and health department on Tuesday announced a reward of up to Rs 1 lakh for information leading to the conviction of errant diagnostic centres that violated the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act and carried out sex determination tests.

The department came out with the reward scheme after reports of increase in sex determination tests across the state.

Health commissioner Katamneni Bhaskar appealed to people to provide information about scanning centres that conducted sex determination tests on pregnant women.

"Any informant will be given Rs 25,000 as reward upon information leading to registration of a case. The reward will go up to Rs 1 lakh if the case ends in conviction," Bhaskar said in a release.

Information against errant scan centres could be provided on helpline number 104 or pcpndt.ap.gov.in website. Details of the informants would be kept confidential, the commissioner said.

The child sex ratio in AP currently stood at 0:5, "which is not good".

"We will have a bad sex ratio again in a few year, though the adult sex ratio now looks okay," a top official pointed out.

He said sex determination appeared to be high though nobody was giving evidence.

"Hence this reward and Rs 1 lakh is decent," he added.

The health department carried out 474 decoy operations in various districts in recent times to keep a tab on scanning centres. More than 17,000 inspections were also carried out to ensure that the PCPNDT Act was not violated.

In 21 cases, the centres were sealed and cases filed in courts.