In a bid to check female foeticide in the state, the Chhattisgarh government has decided to reward those who provide information about sonography centres conducting pre-natal sex determination tests.

The state Health and Family Welfare department has geared up to check such illegal tests and have decided to reward the persons providing information about unregistered and illegally running sonography centres with Rs 25,000, official sources said here on Friday.

State health services director Kamalpreet Singh held a meeting of all nodal officers on June 18 and directed them to facilitate strict implementation of the Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994.

He said the sonography centres would be regularly inspected.

Any person having knowledge about sonography centres indulging in malpractices could inform the concerned district collector or the chief medical and health officer, and the informant would be assured anonymity, Singh said.

State health officials have been directed to regularly inspect the registered sonography centres and take strict action against the unregistered ones.

In case a sonography centre is found unregistered, its sonography machines would be seized and a case would be lodged against it in court, he said.

Special attention would be provided to districts where there is a marked difference in the male-female sex ratio of children up to six years, Singh said.

Under the PCPNDT Act, there is a provision for six-month imprisonment and a fine of Rs 50,000 for sex determination test.