Centre will not give its 25% share of funds in ICDS: Min

Kolkata: State Minister for Women and Child Development and Social Welfare Shashi Panja during the question-answer session at the state Assembly on Friday said that the Centre has stopped providing its share of around 25 per cent of funds in connection with the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme against the 75 per cent share that the Bengal government bears.

The minister pointed out that the state government will now have to spend the entire funds that are utilised for the payment of salaries for the supervisors and other government officials involved in the process of supervising the foods that are served to the children and pregnant women under the ICDS scheme.

Panja said that the Centre on August 1 issued a notification saying that they would no longer bear a 25 per cent share that is diverted towards the payment of salary of state government employees and supervisors whose job is to ensure that children get proper food. There are around 5,053 supervisors in the state and 576 child development project officers (CDPO) and 23 District Programme Officers (DPOs) across Bengal.

“Children aged between 6 months and 6 years come to the ICDS centres to have food. Pregnant women also visit the centres for having food. The Centre has now stopped giving its share of 25 per cent and the amount may run up to Rs 81.68 crore which would have been spent on the salary of the supervisors and other government employees involved in the scheme. State government has to bear the entire cost from now on,” Panja said.

The minister also said that the Centre argued that they would like to divert the funds for training purposes. Panja said that the Centre has been reducing its share of ICDS funds over the years. Initially, it used to bear 90 per cent cost of the scheme and later funds were reduced up to 60 per cent. Finally, the Centre and state were spending funds in a 25:75 ratio.

Meanwhile, the state government recently decided to recruit 2931 supervisors for ICDS centres which had been stalled since 2009.

The post of supervisor that was lying vacant for a long time. As many as 3373 vacancies were declared in 2019 and after the necessary procedure; about 2931 candidates have been declared as selected to fill up these vacancies. They will undergo medical tests and police verification and will soon be recruited. The rest of the vacant posts will be filled up through an examination held by the Public Service Commission.