This follows a sting operation effected by a social activist here who used a decoy couple to book a gynaecologist and a radiologist recently under the Pre-conception and pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PCPNDT).
     
"The NGOs working in the field of family welfare will be given Rs 25,000 for targeting Sonography centres suspected of carrying sex determination tests. The decoy couple used in the operation too will be offered an equal amount as encouragement," said Suresh Gupta, Additional Director, Maharashtra Family Welfare Department.
     
The issue of illegal sex determination tests is being accorded high priority  by the state government in view of a dwindling child sex ratio as a result of female foeticide.
     
Latest data show that the state's child sex ratio which was 913 girls per 1000 boys in 2001 ,has come down to 883 girls in 2011. The state health officials have launched a vigorous campaign to detect sonography clinics who flout the PCPNDT act and conduct sex determination tests clandestinely.
     
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) Pune branch has also issued a notice the gynaecologist nabbed in the recent sting operation asking him as to why his registration should not be cancelled. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) authorities has already initiated a legal action against the doctor radiologist duo after sealing the sonography machine in the concerned clinic.
     
According to Kiran Moghe, the activist who arranged the sting to catch the gynaeocologist, the doctor demanded Rs 9,000 from the decoy couple to send the five-month-old pregnant woman to a sonography clinic for sex determination of the foetus.

Alarmed by a rising number of sex determination tests and resultant female foeticide, state health officials have undertaken a state-wide inspection drive during which as many as 4,827 sonography machines were screened and 220 sealed in the last month.
     
In addition to this, a total of 1579 Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) centres too have been inspected and 57 sealed for illegal practices, officials said.
     
An official notification issued on June 2 said that ultrasound machines, scanners or any other equipment that is not registered and are used for sex determination test will now be confiscated. Earlier, they were sealed and released after payment of fine. There are an estimated 8,000 sonography machines in Maharashtra.
     
About 130 NGOs which are engaged in family welfare activities will be given a "once in a month" target sting
operation to nab erring medical practitioners who work in tandem to facilitate sex determination tests.
     
The government will also bear the travel expenses of the assisting parties when the cases booked under PCPNDT come up for hearing in courts, Gupta said.