Central anti-foeticide team begins raids 

Alarmed over the decline in female-male sex ratio in the last 15
years, the Central Government seems to have determined for a
nation-wide crackdown on sex determination scanning clinics to prevent
female foeticide. [female-male ratio � 945:1,000 in 1991 and 927:1,000
in 2001].

The National Inspection and Monitoring Committee for PNDT Act headed
by Rathan Chand, Director for PNDT Act (Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare, Government of India), Delhi, launched raids in Karnataka
yesterday on the scanning clinics suspected to be involved in sex
determination of foetus and female foeticide (PNDT Act � 1994 �
Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technique [Regulation and Prevention of Misuse]
Act � 1994).

The Delhi team includes M.K. Sharma, Additional Law Secretary,
Government of India and Dr. Kamala Raman, a gynaecologist, belonging
to Parivar Seva Samstha, a Delhi-based NGO.

The team arrived in the city last night and began raids in rural areas
of Nanjangud taluk today. The team is being accompanied by Karnataka
High Court advocate M. Kumar, appointed by the Government of Karnataka
as legal consultant.

The three members of District Committee � Dr. Ufat Fatima, Dr. K.V.
Lakshmidevi, Dr. Janaki Sheshadri � and Taluk Health and Family
Welfare Officer Dr. K.H. Prasad is assisting the team in the raids.

Talking to Star of Mysore exclusively at the office of District Health
and Family Welfare this morning, Rathan Chand said that under the PNDT
Act, keeping unregistered scanner in clinics is a crime. The scanners
should be registered with the District Health and Family Welfare
Officer or any designated authority.

The registered scanners can be utilised for medical aspects. However,
revealing the sex of the foetus is a crime.

Rs. 10,000 fine will be imposed on the offenders, who violate the
provisions of PNDT Act, for the first crime.

However, for the second crime, the licence of the clinic will be
cancelled and the owner will be committed to a jail sentence upto 6
months.

The clinics having scanners should keep a copy of the PNDT Act and
display a signboard detailing the provisions of the Act prominently to
create awareness among the public.

Raids in Bangalore

The Committee conducted the raids on five clinics in Bangalore rural
areas. The scanner in a clinic was seized as the clinic had not
registered it with the Department.

The Committee has powers to conduct raids, seize equipment, collect
fines on-the-spot and handing over the offenders to the Police.

In Mysore district

Rathan Chand said the Committee had information about the clinics
which are allegedly involved in foeticide in Mysore district. The
menace prevails in Mandya and Bangalore districts also.

Though the Committee was planning to commence raids from Mysore city,
Rathan Chand asked his team to proceed to Nanjangud to conduct
surprise raids.

According to him, foeticide is rampant in Nanjangud and rural areas of
the taluk.

More Committees

Rathan Chand disclosed that Committees under PNDT Act will be
constituted in taluks and cities also along with the existing State
and District level Committees.

He hailed the Government of Karnataka for being the first State in
India to appoint a full time legal consultant under the PNDT Act.

He said that today's raid was the beginning of a campaign against
female foeticide and the local Committees will continue the mission.

HEALTH MINISTER JUST A CALL AWAY 

(Reproduced From the Star of Mysore)

Giving assurance to the public of taking action against erring doctors
of government hospitals, the Health Minister R. Ashok provided his
cellphone number (98440-44123) saying the patients, who suffer at the
hands of doctors pestering them for either bribe or quality medicines,
can contact him to complain against such doctors.

The Minister was in the city yesterday and paid a surprise visit to
the K.R. Hospital, which took the doctors unaware as they were not
punctual.

He requested the members of public to inform him if any doctor demands
bribe or trouble the poor patients in giving good medicines to them.

The Minister also said, patients can either call him or the Secretary
Prasad at the Health Department over mobile number 94481-55009.

MINISTER'S PUNCTUALITY DOSE TO DODDASPATHRE DOCS 

It was indeed a surprise visit in true sense. None knew that he was a
Minister when Health and Family Welfare Minister R. Ashok came to the
K.R. Hospital (also known as Doddaspathre) to verify the attendance
register this morning at 8.50 am.

Hospital Staff too did not recognise him. Members of the public
thought him to be one among them.

Dr. Geetha Avadhani, Head, Department of Surgery, came to know that
the Minister was in the hospital when he went to her chamber as she is
in-charge Superintendent today as the Superintendent Dr. B.D.
Satyanarayana is away in Bangalore attending a meeting.

Accompanied by a handful of officers, unlike other Ministers Ashok
took Dr. Avadhani to the Superintendent's chamber to verify the
attendance register. He found that 17 of the 90 doctors had not turned
up even at 9.05 am though they were supposed to sign the register
before 9 am, the scheduled time.

Between 9.05 and 9.15 am five doctors turned up one by one only to be
puzzled at the sight of a Minister in the Superintendent's chamber.
The Minister thundered at them when they tried to sign the register
pretending ignorance about the Minister's presence.

One of the doctors tried to convince the Minister saying that he had
come to the hospital much before 9 am and had gone to his department.
This explanation irked the Minister Ashok who reminded the doctor that
he (Minister) was waiting since 8.50 am.

One of the doctors gave excuses that he was late as he was caught in a
traffic jam, while another tried to defend himself saying the
Superintendent had given them a margin of 5 to 10 minutes !

The Minister asked the Superintendent to issue showcause notices to
all the 17 doctors for not observing punctuality.

Five doctors and Chief Pharmacist Deshpande turned up only after 9.15
am. The doctors included Latha Muthanna, Ravikumar, Dr. Kuddari,
Casualty Medical Officer G. Devan and former Superintendent Mahimanjan
Singh.

Government Order

The Minister read out a Government Order as the doctors stood before
him. The order says doctors should sign the attendance register at 9
am. They can do so even at 9.05 am with the permission of the Head of
the Institution. Those who come after 9.10 am should appear before the
Hospital Secretary or Superintendent to give an explanation. Half-day
salary should be cut in case the doctors turn up 30 minutes late.

Minister Ashok told media persons that he paid a surprise visit
following a number of complaints that doctors at Government Hospital
do not observe punctuality and many of them, after signing the
register, leave the hospital to run their own clinic or to visit
private nursing homes leaving the poor patients in the lurch.

Ashok's surprise visit ended at 11.05 am.

Dr. Vasudeva Nayak, new Supdt. of KR Hospital 

Dr. B.D. Satyanarayana, Superintendent, Krishnarajendra Hospital (K.R.
Hospital) has been transferred.

The Department of Medical Education, which has transferred Dr.
Satyanarayana to Bangalore Medical College as its Principal, has
nominated Dr. Vasudeva Nayak as the Superintendent of K.R. Hospital in
his place.

Dr. Satyanarayana, who took charge as Medical Superintendent of the
Hospital only six months ago, has one-and-half years service still
left for him. His transfer is reported to have taken place in the
backdrop of letters written by several voluntary organisations and
associations as well as the Deputy Commissioner to the Government
complaining against him.
No written communication about the transfer had been received by him,
Dr. Satyanarayana said, adding that he had been informed
telephonically. The transfer, in spite of rendering honest service,
had pained him, Dr. Satyanarayana said in reaction to the transfer
order.

MMC alumni downplay JK grounds acquisition 

In a growing ire against the Transport Minister's proposal to shift
the city bus stand to the J.K. Grounds, the Alumni Association of
Mysore Medical College on Saturday asserted that J K Grounds was an
exclusive property of the Mysore Medical college validated through a
govt order of 2004.

Addressing a press meet here on Saturday, G.S. Venkatesh, president of
the association and a retired superintendent of the college said that
the ground was MMCs since the inception of college by Krishnaraja
Wadiyar, 1924.

A government order no. 199 MSF/2004 has concluded the grounds as part
and parcel of the MMC, while the play ground remains with the college
since 1924. The government order corroborated and regularised
conflicting claims, he pointed.

As per Medical Council of India rules, a medical college must
compulsorily have a sports ground for recognition.

The governments move, if effected would strip the MMC of its recognition.

Move to bring in doctors from PHCs to tackle crisis 

Crisis in city hospitals; casualty department is worst-affected Junior
doctors continue agitation; patients suffer

Senior doctors unable to treat all patients who thronged K.R. Hospital
and Cheluvamba Hospital

Authorities planning to issue notices to striking junior doctors to
report to work

Medical services, including emergency, continue to be affected at K.R.
Hospital and Cheluvamba Hospital here, as junior doctors continue
their strike against the reservation for OBCs in institutions of
higher education.

Alarmed by the situation, the authorities are making efforts to bring
in doctors from primary health centres to treat patients at these two
hospitals.

Sources said that the doctors from the primary health centres around
the city and district would be called in to report at K.R. Hospital
and Cheluvamba Hospital to treat patients as the queues grew longer on
Thursday. All medical staff, professors and teachers of Mysore Medical
College have been requested to attend duties at K.R. Hospital and
Cheluvamba Hospital. A few senior doctors who held the fort on
Wednesday and Thursday were unable to treat all the patients who
thronged the hospitals. Sources said a large number of patients arrive
at these two hospitals from rural areas as the treatment was
affordable.

As the junior doctors numbering 130 are on strike since Tuesday, 30
senior doctors struggled to treat the patients at the outpatient
department. The emergency and casualty department remained the
worst-affected. Sources said that several doctors who reported to duty
on Wednesday morning continued to work even on Thursday.

Meanwhile, sources said that the authorities were contemplating
issuing notices to the striking junior doctors to report to work.

Letter campaign

Medical students, who have been striking against the reservation
policy, launched a letter campaign on Thursday in front of K.R.
Hospital on Thursday. In the hand-written letters that they
distributed to the public, the students clarified that they were not
against reservation, but were only demanding rightful place for
meritorious students. They said that vote-bank politics had affected
the Indian society.

SAVE J.K. GROUNDS… SAVE J.K. GROUNDS… 

The announcement by the State Transport Minister N. Cheluvarayaswamy
yesterday that he was thinking of turning the J.K. Grounds into a
so-called "hi-tech" bus station revives an old debate. There can be no
question that Mysore deserves a bigger, better bus station than the
horrendous one that we are currently blessed with. But the ease with
which our politicians routinely eye the J.K. Grounds is not merely an
indication of bankrupt thinking but an indication of the complete lack
of vision that has marked our City's planning and growth (at the hands
of post-independence Maharajas and their diwans).

The plan to turn J.K. Grounds into a bus station has been broached
several times before and the arguments in its favour have always been
the same. That it is spacious enough. That it is close to the
business-centre of the City. That it is close to the railway station.
And that the approach roads are spacious. However, every single
Minister who has come up with the idea has also shown a singular lack
of desire to protect what is one of the great open, lung spaces in the
middle of the City, and to no one's surprise Cheluvarayaswamy does
not buck the trend.

There are three key reasons why J.K. Grounds should not be killed. The
chief one is that it is close to the KR. Hospital, Cheluvamba Hospital
and Veterinary Hospital. Hospitals and their inmates need peace and
quiet, and a pollution free environment not the noise and fumes of a
thousand buses. But there are two other equally important reasons.
One, J.K. Grounds is a lake which has been turned into a playground.
We should not kill playgrounds. And two, the railway offices in front
of the grounds is a heritage building, whose beauty should not be
marred by an obscene hi-tech structure.

However, unlike previous ministers Cheluvarayaswamy's "threat" should
be taken more seriously because the JD(S)-BJP government is precisely
the kind of government which will ride roughshod over public opinion
in the name of development. Indeed, the tone and tenor of the
transport minister bodes ill. He says he will talk to the district
in-charge minister D.T. Jayakumar and the transport officials before
arriving at a decision. How can a momentous decision like this can be
arrived at without involving the Mysore City Corporation, the town
planning authorities, or our heritage-wallahs?

In many ways, J.K. Grounds provides an epitaph to the Mysore Medical
College under whose purview the grounds come. Instead of using the
grounds to the fullest, instead of setting an example to fellow
citizens that sporting activity can lead to a healthy body, our
doctors and medical students have been too busy making money and
mugging up. The result is that the grounds have gone to seed. Which is
what makes the grounds so attractive to every Minister, who can only
see contracts and shopping complexes in the wide open space.

The need of the hour in Mysore is to learn from Bangalore. And the
need of the hour is to take any and every measure that will decongest
the heart of the City. Building a bus station at J.K. Ground will only
lead to congestion of the kind that has killed Bangalore.

OBC quota: Medicos take out procession in Mysore 

The processionists, including students from JSS Medical College,
Mysore Medical College, and junior doctors, passed through the main
thoroughfares of the city and culminated at the Deputy Commissioner's
office.

Over 1,000 students of various city medical colleges today took out a
procession against the Centre going ahead with the reservation of 27
per cent seats in higher education for OBCs.

The processionists, including students from JSS Medical College,
Mysore Medical College, and junior doctors, passed through the main
thoroughfares of the city and culminated at the Deputy Commissioner's
office. They submitted a memorandum to Deputy Commissioner S Selva
Kumar, urging the Union Government to withdraw the order immediately.
They also shouted slogans against the Centre and Union Human Resources
Minister Arjun Singh.

Traffic was disturbed in many places following the procession.

Meanwhile, the relay hunger strike by medicos in front of the
Cheluvamma Hospital continued for the sixth day today.

The agitation by the junior doctors had completely thrown out of gear
services at the K R Hospital, including emergency services.