Fund block: ‘Several ICDS Centres in shambles due to Centre’s apathy’
Kolkata: State Minister for Women and Child Development and Social Welfare Shashi Panja at the state Assembly on Friday alleged that the Centre has stopped providing dues to the state under Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme as a result the state government is bearing the funds utilised for foods served to the children and pregnant mothers.
Giving statistics on the floor of the House, Panja said that the state government had sought Rs 657 crore from the Centre for serving food to 69,16,368 children and 12 lakh pregnant women but the latter has only cleared Rs Rs 337 crore.
She also alleged that several ICDS Centres are in shambles due to the apathy of the Central government. There are around 1,19,481 sanctioned centres in the state. The Union government is changing policies from time to time but they are not clearing funds, alleged Panja.
The minister pointed out that the Centre has stopped providing funds for the payments of salaries for the supervisors and the officials involved in the process of supervising the foods that are served to the children and pregnant women under the ICDS scheme. As a result the state government has to bear the entire funds that are utilised for the payment of salaries.
There are around 5,053 supervisors in the state and 576 child development project officers (CDPO) and 23 District Programme Officers (DPOs) across Bengal. Only 257 CDPOs are currently working and the rest are vacant. Out of 5,053 sanctioned posts of supervisors, only 3,924 are working. The remaining posts are vacant.
Children aged between 6 months and 6 years come to the ICDS centres to have food. Pregnant women also visit the centres to have food. Earlier in September, Panja had accused the Centre of stopping its share of 25 per cent and the amount ran 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.
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, Panja added. Meanwhile, the state government recently decided to recruit 2931 supervisors for ICDS centres which had been stalled since 2009.
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.
