Law to monitor pathology labs soon, says minister Samant

MUMBAI: State industries minister Uday Samant said on Tuesday that the government would soon introduce a law to monitor and control pathology laboratories in the state.
"The law will look into registration, rules for operation and punishment," said Samant. He also said that flying squads will be set up to scrap the registration of pathology labs working without registration under the Maharashtra paramedical council.
Samant said that in 2019, Maharashtra had around 7,085 pathology laboratories. Of these, 182 were in Mumbai. And additional 197 laboratories operated from hospitals and came under the registration and control of the BMC.
The issue of unauthorised pathology laboratories in the state was raised in the assembly by BJP MLA Sunil Rane who said that these posed a threat to the public because there was a massive difference in the fees charged by them. Also, there were instances of such labs giving fake results, he claimed.
NCP (Sharad Pawar group) MLA Rajesh Tope said that a law to monitor pathology laboratories needs to be brought in urgently.