The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday said that it would carry out a “survey and inspection” of all the In Vitro Fertility (IVF) and genetic counselling centres from the first week of July.
The BMC made the decision after a delegation of NGOs led by advocate and activist Varsha Deshpande met the additional municipal commissioner Manisha Mhaiskar, prompted by the civic body’s “failure” in investigating the matter of actor Shah Rukh Khan’s surrogate child.
“From the first week of July, we will start a survey and the inspection of all the IVF centres and genetic counselling centres in the city. The delegation has brought to our notice that many centres operating in the city, may not be registered. We will look into that too,” said Ms Mhaiskar.
“We will hopefully complete the survey within two weeks’ time,” she added.
In the meantime, the civic body is still struggling to ascertain whether the case of Mr Khan’s surrogacy comes under their jurisdiction.
“The BMC has absolutely failed in investigating the matter thoroughly. In the complaint filed by us, we had given the authorities 15 days’ time. By next Sunday if they do not give convincing results, we will start an agitation. The BMC officials were summarily sent back from Mr Khan’s house and on basis of that, the BMC has been claiming that we have found nothing. This answer is not satisfactory,” said Ms Deshpande.
She also alleged that the corporation does not have records of the IVF centres.
“Jaslok Hospital has not submitted any record of its IVF centres in the past 10 years. This just strengthens the case that the actor could have done the surrogacy and nothing was recorded at all. It is a possibility and it needs to be investigated,” added Ms Deshpande.
The civic body is yet to get in touch with the actor regarding the issue, said Ms Mhaiskar.