By IANS
Chandigarh : A doctor in Punjab’s Kotkapura town has been sentenced to three months’ rigorous imprisonment by a court for possessing an ultrasound machine without mandatory registration.
Punjab’s director of family welfare S.P.S. Sohal said Monday the doctor, Parmod Gupta, of Kotkapura town in Faridkot district, 250 km from here, has been sentenced to three months in jail with a penalty of Rs.1,000.
The action follows violation of the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PNDT), under which keeping an ultrasound machine requires mandatory registration with the health department.
Ultrasound machines are used for sex determination tests and Punjab has an embarrassing sex ratio of less than 800 women per 1,000 men.
This is the sixth conviction of a doctor by a court for violating the PNDT Act.
In one case, the medical registration of a doctor in Amritsar was suspended for five years while in other cases the doctors were awarded prison terms and penalised.
A female doctor, Rita Garg of Mansa, 200 km from here, was imprisoned for three months and fined Rs.1,000.
Sohal said that 97 cases have been registered in recent years for violation of the PNDT Act.