Govt under fire for fudging gender ratio figures

 Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 27

Amid reports of a considerable improvement in the gender ratio in the state, known for people’s penchant for boy child, the alleged manipulation of figures by some districts has come as a dampener for the ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ campaign. 

However, it has been learnt that the state government has taken a serious view of the alleged fudging of gender ratio figures between January and March by some districts  and ordered validation of the figures by an independent agency.

Sources said names of Palwal and Narnaul districts had surfaced in this regard.

Interestingly, both Palwal and Narnaul have suddenly jumped to the first and third positions in the state with the gender ratio of 1,042 and 968 girls, respectively, against 1,000 baby boys born between January 1 and March 31, 2017.

Sources said it had come to light during an audit that the birth of all girls had been registered while those of some baby boys had been concealed in order to present improved figures of the gender ratio.

Sources added that an inquiry had been ordered.

The sources said Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had also expressed his unhappiness, saying that at a time when his government was successfully implementing PM Narendra Modi’s campaign, some officials were trying to put spanner by falsifying the figures.

Civil Surgeons of Palwal and Narnaul Aditya Swaroop Gupta and Dayanand Bagri, respectively, however, denied the manipulation of figures, saying that they did not have any knowledge about the inquiry.

Meanwhile, Rakesh Gupta, Additional Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, who also looks after the campaign, confirmed that the validation process of the figures had been ordered but denied that it had anything to do with the allegations of manipulation.

“We have been getting the validation done for several districts (including these two districts). We do this on a regular basis so that the district health authorities do not manipulate numbers,” he said.