The Jagdalpur Municipal Corporation (JMC) has yet to construct anganwadi centres in different wards of the town even after it received necessary funds from women and child development department.
The women and child development department has provided more than Rs 40 lakh to the corporation during the last three years for construction of such centres. The woman and child development said it has been regularly sanctioning funds for such construction, while the corporation alleged the amount of funds the Government has sanctioned was inadequate.
The anganwadi centres are being run on rented houses and the children are being facing difficulties. The move to build anganwadi centre on three thousand square feet area in the town has remained only on pen and paper brining disappointment to the people and the children. The JMC commissioner Kumar Jaisawal said the anganwadi centre construction did not take off because of the lack of adequate funds. He said few days ago the corporation members gave their nod for the construction of centres each at a cost of Rs 4.50 lakh rupees. This includes construction of water harvesting structure and the boundary wall.
While some construction has started at Ramaiya ward, no work so far has been done in Ganganagar. Because of the lack of its own building at least 66 anganwadi centres in the town are running at the rented houses. The government has been paying a rent of Rs.700 for each such house. Officials said the children face trouble in these temporary centres especially during the winter, summer, and rainy season. Some anganwadi workers are operating the centres at their own homes as landlords pressurised them to increase the rent. District programme officer MN Khunte said although the government has allocated the required funds to the corporation not a single centre has been built so far. The administration has appointed the corporation as the construction agency.