BERHAMPUR: Many Anganwadi centres in Ganjam district are running from rented facilities or community halls reportedly due to alleged neglect by authorities concerned, lack of coordination between departments and follow-up action.
Sources said despite release of funds for construction of new anganwadi buildings and their management, many centres are running in a pitiable condition. Ganjam has 5,161 anganwadi centres. Even after government released funds for new buildings for all, construction of 1,121 buildings is incomplete while work on another 627 centres has not started.
Sample this: In Jagannathprasad block, there’s an anganwadi centre each in Chamunda and Kalyanpur villages. At Kalyanpur, the centre was started in 2009 has has 20 students enrolled. But even after 13 years, it continues to operate from the village community hall as the construction of the new building, which started in 2019, is still incomplete. Locals said earlier the anganwadi centre was operating from verandahs of houses and shifted to the community hall only last year while using open space for cooking.
The scenario in Chamunda village is no different. Here too the anganwadi is running from the verandah of a government upper primary school for the last four years. Worse, the abandoned toilet is reportedly being used as a kitchen. Confirming the same, anganwadi worker Sudeshna Pradhan said,”Our children study on the verandah and the abandoned toilet is used for cooking meals. However, we face problems during extreme heat and rains. We apprise authorities of the issue every month but to no avail.”
As per reports, the new building for the centre has already been constructed at a cost of Rs 8.20 lakh but the the contractor refused to part with it over non-payment of bills. “My bills are not cleared. I will hand over the keys only after receiving the payment,” said contractor Bijay Kumar Gouda. Sources said not only Jagannathprasad block, most of other blocks are riddled with similar problems. Contacted, Collector Vijay Amruta Kulange said problems of anganwadi centres will be solved soon.