John Wilbert & Rabindranath Biswas
Port Blair, Nov 15: Anganwadi Centres under ICDS in North and Middle Andaman are witnessing long delays in getting nutritious ration items for the children.
According to reports, no dry ration has been distributed at the Anganwadis in the North and Middle Andaman region since the last two months. Even the mild & egg are missing from the plates of the children at the Anganwadi Centres, the report said.
As per details, recently limited consignment of dry ration items such as rice, oil etc were distributed to Anganwadi Centres of Middle Andaman, that too only for the month of August 2022 but the pending stocks of last two months were not given.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha, the parents of the children of Anganwadi Centres of Nilambur, Baratang alleged that many children come to Anganwadi Centers but unfortunately their children are not served the food at the centres and a result, few parents send food with their children while a number of children have ceased to come to Angawai Centres due to this reason. On the other hand, these nutritious ration items are meant for children and pregnant women but due to such delay, clearly children and pregnant women are not getting sufficient nutrition, which they rightfully deserve to get, the parents claimed.
As per sources, the Social Welfare Department said that the supply was stopped due to some issues in the procurement process. Earlier Self Help Group used to supply the dry ration items but now the Dept. has to buy these items through the GEM process and because of this reason undesired delay is occurring, they maintained.
