Foeticide may carry life term

Health minister Anbumani Ramadoss told the Rajya Sabha on Friday that the government intends to make life imprisonment as a penalty for violations of the Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act, 1994. He said that central supervisory board for implementation of the PNDT Act is slated to meet next week and this issue of life imprisonment could be taken up. He informed the house that there were 403 pending cases and 132 ultrasound machines have been seized and sealed under this law. In this year, about 125 cases have been reported and there have been four convictions. He acknowledged that the conviction rate was low as foeticide is a clandestine affair.