Income-Tax opens six new offices in state

Under the restructuring plan, the taxdept has rehauled its cadre and created a post of principal chief commissioner

Income-tax department has restructured its cadre in Gujarat, cre ating new posts and offices. For more efficient functioning of the department, it has opened six new centers at the remotest places in the state.

“So far we have had four officesAhmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot. During any problem, people had to go to these centers for redressal. With the new centres coming up it will become easier for people,“ said an official in the department.

“The plan has been approved by the Union government and these offices will be opening very soon,“ he added.

RAY IS PCC

Moreover, new post of principal chief commissioner (PCC) has been added to the list, who will be the chief commissioner's superior.

Incumbent Chief Commissioner S K Ray has been promoted to the post of PCC. Since now taxpayers will be filing their returns of income to their new jurisdictions, the pending proceedings shall also be completed by the officers posted in the new offices.

Drumstick boost to mid-day meal

To improve health ofmalnourished kids, govt will provide 10-gm of saragwa in schools; supply to bemet by growing vegetable

Being a state with the third highest number of malnourished children in India, Gujarat government has decided to take a cue from Karnataka and introduce drumstick in its midday meal (MDM) scheme for schools.

Nepotism strikes TB project

The Indian Medical Association projectthat is meant for private hospitals for better implementation of TB programmegets limited to government Civil Hospital and BJ Medical College leavingclassrooms without teachers in the afternoon

Rupali Sharma (name changed), a student of microbiology, and her classmates were hanging out with other students at the canteen of BJ Medical College in the afternoon when she should have been in the classroom. Reason: Their professors were attending a workshop on TB organised by Ahmedabad Medical Association (AMA). The workshop, incidentally, was supposed to be organised at private hospitals.

GRADUATES RENT WOMB TO SECURE THEIR FUTURE

 Number of educated women willingto rent out their wombs is on the rise; many use the money to start a business,educate their children or invest in property, say infertility experts

Mona Mahta a-28-year-old woman with a BCom degree, earned lakhs of rupees in eight months.

She is using the money to not only educate her two daughters but also prepare for examination to get a bank job. But Mehta she is not just another working mother. She is a surrogate mom.

43,000 kids from city suffer from diabetes

Sedentary lifestyle, academic stressand excessive use of smart technology put kids at risk; Ahmedabad stands thirdhighest in country for juvenile diabetes

Sushil Mehta, a 13-year old studying at a private school in the city, goes for a 20-minute run every morning before getting ready for school. No, he is not training for the annual sports meet. He was recently diagnosed with type-2 diabetes which came as shock to his family considering his young age. “I never thought my son will become a diabetic at such an early age.

WEBSITES REMOVE ADVERTS FOR HOME GENDER TEST KITS

An Indiamart listing for a `gender prediction'kit  promising totell parents the sex of their baby after just 10 weeks ofpregnancy has beentaken off the site. A day after Mirror reported how IntelliGender home sex-testkit  was easily available online and delivered throughout the country, severalother domestic e-commerce portals advertising this kit followed suit andremoved the ads from their websites. The selective abortion of female foetusesis rampant in India, resulting in a tragically skewed sex ratio of 914 girls to1,000 boys in the country. The situation is more morbid in Gujarat where theratio is 883 girls to 1,000 boys. Mirror's report `Battle against female foetusgoes online' (AM; Nov 10) highlighted how this pre-natal sex prediction kitspelt trouble for states where the practice of killing females in the womb isconsidered both practical and socially acceptable.

Indiamart.com, which claims to be India's largest online business-to-business marketplace, advertised `IntelliGender Gender Prediction Test Kit' which assured identification of a foetus's gender through a urine test. The official IntelliGender website states, “IntelliGender is designed for easy home use by curious expectant mothers. In minutes, the test indicates your gender result based upon an easy-to-read colour match.Green indicates boy and orange indicates girl!“ The kit was also available on in.ebid.net, an online auction website, and http:www.indianindustry.com, another online marketplace. However, the portals stopped removed the advertisements a day after the Mirror report was published.

Considering that genderbased abortions are banned in India, such advertisements for prenatal gender selection kits are illegal. According to PreConception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, any kind of advertisement relating to sex determination test is illegal and a punishable offence.

When contacted, Vijendrasingh Mansingh Rajput from Indiamart (Ahmedabad) said, “The advertisement must have been put up on the website accidentally. However, since this product is banned in India, advertising it goes against the rules. Hence, we have removed the online ads related to this product.“

The existing Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, allows abortion till the 20th week of pregnancy. An amendment has been proposed to allow abortion till the 24th week.

Heard this? No one killed female foetus

Female foetuses are found inlitter bins and officials accept hospitals conducting sex determination testsdo exist, yet health dept's RTI reply says there has been no case of femalefoeticide in the state in 7 years

These are a few cases which caught public attention and many more cases remain unreported. Yet, an RTI filed by Mirror with the health and family welfare department elicited the response on October 30 that in seven years beginning 2008, no case of female foeticide has been registered against anyone and hence no one has been convicted. Either the authorities concerned are giving wrong information or have not bothered to collect relevant information.

The discrimination against girl child

AMISHA YAGNIK recounted her horror story in the episode on `female foeticide' of Aamir Khan-anchored Satyamev Jayate in 2012. She was forced to abort her unborn girl child six times in eight years. Later her husband was arrested and a case registered against him.