KARACHI: Drastic measures including sterilisation and extradition of immigrant cases have been decided upon by the Sind Government as part of its plan to curb the spread of leprosy in Sind.

It is announced that although Sind has no leprosy problem of its own, the facilities existing in Karachi for the treatment of leprosy attract to Sind increasingly large number of leper immigrants from other parts of India.

The entire burden of hospitalisation and maintenance of the expanding leper population also falls on Sind because there is no provision to make any provincial Government pay for the lepers outside its territory.

The Sind Government, therefore, decided to legislate, says a Press Note, for the sterilisation and registration of lepers and for their removal from the province. The police will carry out a weekly round-up of all lepers who after medical examination will be separated from other non-infectious cases. The [former] will be prosecuted under the Lepers Act and required to leave Sind.

[Meanwhile, in Calcutta;] The police arrested 30 village women for carrying each about half a maund rice into rationed areas in contravention of Bengal Rationing Order. (Dawn, Delhi)