'Centre allocating less funds for ICDS'

KOLKATA: State Minister for Women and Child Development Shashi Panja lashed out at the Centre for less allotment of funds in connection with the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme.

During the question-answer session at the state Assembly on Monday, Panja said that under the annual implementation programme in connection with ICDS the total budget for 2020-21 was Rs 3,633 crore. "Budget demand placed before the Centre was Rs 1,899 crore, but the Centre approved Rs 1,418 crore which is 76 per cent of the funds that they were supposed to cough up. In the year 2021-22, the total budget was Rs 4078 crore and the demand placed was of Rs 2106 crore. However, the Centre approved Rs 1386 crore which amounts to 49 per cent of the budget. So not only in MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act ), the Centre's apathy is also seen in ICDS," Panja said.

She reiterated that the state government has stood beside the Anganwadi workers post their retirement age of 60 years and had provided terminal benefits to the tune of Rs 3 lakh each. Besides, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's humane approach also ensured an additional honorarium for the ICDS workers by increasing the budget every year in this area.Though the sharing pattern between the Centre and the state was 50:50, but it has been slashed drastically in several sub-components of Anganwadi services. In the case of salary, the Centre's share has come down to only 25 per cent against the state's 75 per cent. In all other general services, the state's share is 60 per cent while that of the Centre is only 40 per cent.

During the pandemic, when the Anganwadi centres were closed for nearly two years, the department not only ensured food supply to the children of these centres but reached out to them through audio modules in the form of short poems and stories so that they do not get completely dissociated with activities at ICDS centres.