KOLHAPUR: In a welcome move, the standing committee of the Kolhapur Municipal Corporation KMC ) on Friday decided to waive delivery and other charges, including consultation and medicines, for women delivering a girl child at civic-run hospitals.The landmark decision, which is intended to improve the female sex ratio at birth, was taken on a suggestion by corporator Savita Ghorpade even as a proposal was tabled earlier in the meeting to increase the charges for deliveries at the hospitals.Several departments had tabled the proposal to increase the fees. A similar proposal was tabled by the health department to increase the medical service charges at several civic hospitals and dispensaries. The standing committee not only decided to waive all the charges related to the delivery of the first girl child, but also the second one.Ghorpade said KMC's Savitribai Phule Hospital and Panchaganga Hospital usually has pregnant women from poor family backgrounds coming for deliveries as they cannot afford the charges of private hospitals. "I suggested that irrespective of whether the delivery was normal or through C-section, the treatment charges should be waived if the woman delivers a girl. The facility should be provided for the second girl child also," she said.

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