Patancheru: TS Govt move to rationalise Anganwadis flayed

Patancheru: The Sangareddy district unit of CITU on Thursday demanded withdrawal of GO 14 which harms the Anganwadi workers. CITU district committee member B Nageswar Rao raised the demand while the participants at a dharna of Anganwadi teachers at ICDS office. He also opposed the government move to reduce the number of Anganwadi centres.

In a representation to ICDS Project Director Chandrakala, Rao recalled that the NDA government after coming to power in 2014 cut the ICDS budget by 60 per cent. He demanded both the Central and the State governments give up their policies to privatise the Integrated Child Development Scheme programmes.

Rao claimed that the Anganwadi teachers were falling sick because of work pressure and that the GO was causing insecurity among them. He alleged that the GO 19 was issued to deny pension to the employees aged 60 years. Rao demanded payment of Rs 21,000 as the minimum wage to the Anganwadi staff, with reduced work load and legal steps to provide pension through the Employee State Insurance Corporation (ESIC).

He expressed distress over the Anganwadi staff facing problems for the last two years due to the failure of ITDA project officers to visit their spots. The CITU leader appealed to make January 8 strike to press demands of workers successful.

Among those present at the dharna camp were Anganwadi employees Santoshi, Vijayalakshmi, Balamani, Manjula, Kalpana, Anita, Sunita, Rasi, Rupa, Padma and Sujata.