Members of the Legislature Committee on Women and Child Welfare have expressed discontent over the functioning of anganwadis, especially in implementing schemes and programmes meant for addressing malnourishment in children, in Kalaburagi district.
They were redressing public grievances at a review meeting here on Wednesday. The meeting was chaired by panel’s chairman N.A. Haris and attended by Minister of State for Information Technology and Bio-Technology Priyank Kharge.
The matter was taken up for discussion when Basavaraj Ravoor, a social activist, raised the issue of under-utilisation of funds released in 2015-16 for fighting malnourishment in children in the district. The “unacceptable replies” from Srikanth Kulkarni, Deputy Director for Women and Child Development, who tried to pass the buck stating that he took charge only a few months ago, further enraged the committee members and the Minister.
“You have not come from veterinary or some other departments that have nothing to do with anganwadis. You were in the same department and you cannot escape from your responsibilities. You are indeed absolutely clueless as to what is happening in your department,” Mr. Kharge told the officer.
Mr. Haris registered his resentment over the overall functioning of anganwadis — right from maintaining timings and registers to distribution of nutritious food among beneficiaries.
“We were taken by officers to an anganwadi that they thought was one af the best. There was no proper register, no progress reports and nothing of the sort. The milk that was supposed to be served by 10 a.m. was not given even by 11 a.m. If such is the plight of the “best” anganwadis, imagine the condition of the others,” Mr. Haris said.
When Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer Anirudh Sravan intervened and accepted that there was “failure at the supervisory level”, both Mr. Kharge and Mr. Haris told the officer to put a mechanism in place for effective monitoring.
“We cannot expect you to visit each and every anganwadi in the district. However, you need to develop a proper mechanism of supervision to ensure that lower-level officers frequently visit anganwadis and see that the welfare programmes are properly implemented,” Mr. Kharge told Mr. Sravan.
Supporting Mr. Sravan on the need to upgrade technology for supervision and monitoring, Deputy Commissioner Ujjwal Kumar Ghosh told the panel that the district administration would work on developing software for ensuring effective utilisation of human resources and proper implementation of various welfare schemes.
Panel members Y. Ramakka, Jayamma, Vinisha Nero, N. Appaji Gowda and S. Veena Achhaiah were present.
