New Delhi, Apr 7 (UNI) Three clinics allegedly helping parents abort female foetuses through pre-natal screening techniques were sealed and their registrations withdrawn following a raid in Delhi this week, a member of the raiding team said today.

Malini Bhattacharya, member of the National Commission for Women (NCW) and the Health Ministry's National Inspections and Monitoring Committee (NIMC) told reporters that the NIMC also seized documents and sealed the machines after the clinics at Okhla and Sangam Vihar were found violating the law.

The Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act prohibits sex selection and empowers officials to suspend or cancel the registration of any hospital, clinic or laboratory where sex determination tests are done.

Action was taken against Lokpriya Clinic and Shadaab Clinic in Okhla and Dr K P Singh's clinic at Sangam Vihar on April 4 and 5, Ms Bhattacharya said.

Speaking on the occasion, NCW Chairperson Girija Vyas deplored that the PCPNDT Act was not being implemented strictly in many states where the sex ratio was low. Different states should enact laws to set up their own monitoring committees of the NIMC kind, she said.

UNI VN PK PM1614