State to recruit nearly 3K supervisors for ICDS centres

Kolkata: The state government will soon be recruiting 2931 supervisors for ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) centres which was stalled since 2009.

“The post of supervisors that were lying vacant for a long time will soon be filled up. As many as 3373 vacancies were declared in 2019 and after the necessary procedure, 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,” State Minister for Women and Child Development and Social Welfare Shashi Panja said during the question-answer session at the state Assembly. The rest of the vacant posts will be filled up through an examination held by Public Service Commission.

Litigations had contributed to stalling supervisor recruitment but the state government took necessary action to weed out such legal logjam.

“Supervisors’ post is of utmost importance for the smooth functioning of ICDS centres which provides nutritional meals, pre-school education, Primary healthcare, immunisation, health check-ups and referral services to children under 6 years of age and their mothers.

The minister also pointed out the significant increase in disability pension, widow pension, and old age pension since 2019, at a time when Covid had reared its ugly head for nearly two years starting from March 2020. The disability pension till April 2019 was 44244 which had risen to 6,51705, the widow pension has risen from 49687 to 1500564 and the old age pension has gone up from 83738 to 1689587.