Imphal, October 16 2009: Giving three days dateline to the Government, Anganwadi Workers and Helpers' Union has warned of closing down all the Anganwadi centres in the State if the pending honorarium for 6 months of the Anganwadi workers and helpers are not given.

Talking to mediapersons on the sidelines of a protest demonstration staged at Keishampat Junction here over the same demand, general secretary of the Union N Binodini lamented that inspite of repeated reminders for paying off the pending honorarium of the Anganwadi workers and helpers since April this year, the demand has not been considered by the Government.

After the protest demonstration which was staged till 1 pm, the aggrieved Anganwadi workers and helpers took out a procession with the intention of handing over a memorandum highlighting their demands to the Chief Minister.

However, the police stopped them from proceeding further and allowed only five representatives to go ahead and hand over the memorandum to the CM.

Coming back from handing over the memorandum, one of the representatives informed the gathering that they could not meet the Chief Minister.

But the memorandum was handed over to the Chief Minister's office and had been assured that the Chief Minister would ensure clearance of two months' honorarium very soon.

However, the agitating Anganwadi workers and helpers made it clear that they would not accept the offer of two months' pending honorarium and if all the pending honorarium were not released before the Ningol Chakkouba festival, then all the Anganwadi centres in the State would be closed down.

Talking to mediapersons, the agitating Anganwadi workers and helpers said that denial of their due honorarium for the last five months has caused lot of financial difficulties in their respective families apart from discouraging them in performance of their duties diligently.

They also reiterated their demand of clearing the due honorarium before the upcoming Ningol Chakkouba festival.

During the protest demonstration, placards inscribed with other demands of the Union like setting up of a separate Directorate to look after ICDS, contribution of the State share to the project and regular supply of supplementary nutrition for the children were also put up.

In connection with these demands, Union president T Tongkhombi Devi explained that Anganwadi is a project being taken up under the cent percent Centrally sponsored scheme of ICDS.

Even though the funding related to payment of honorarium to the workers and helpers and the provision of supplementary nutrition for the children are being given from the Centre in time, the Anganwadi workers and helpers have not received them in time.

The pending amount of honorarium being demanded too had been released from the Centre long ago, she added.

Comment