Senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader and Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal today urged union women and child development minister Annapurna Devi to institute a CBI probe into the rampant corruption being done in the procurement and supply of rations being provided to pregnant and lactating mothers and children through Anganwadi workers in Punjab.
The Bathinda MP, who met the union minister along with All India Anganwadi Workers president Hargobind Kaur, said Angwanwadi workers were agitating over the substandard food articles being supplied to pregnant and lactating mothers and infants under the central government’s Integrated Child Healthcare (ICH) Programme and other related initiatives.
Mrs Badal informed the minister that ever since the AAP government took over the reins of power in Punjab private food shops had been engaged to supply food items under the scheme leading to huge corruption. She said the government had taken away the responsibility of supplying milk powder, ‘ghee’ and ‘panjeeri’ – from the cooperative Verka in favour of a private black listed company.
She said the probe should examine why the contract for supplying the food items was taken away from the cooperative which was supplying satisfactory products for years besides probing how the number of beneficiaries had been doubled by creating a fake list to double the money received under the ICDS programme from Rs 150 crore to Rs 300 crore.
Asserting that sub-standard products being supplied under the scheme to mothers and children were playing with their lives, Mrs Harsimrat Badal said only a CBI probe could uncover the entire scam. She said since the beneficiaries were not at fault the scheme should not be stopped but those responsible for corruption, including AAP functionaries, should be penalized.
The MP also raised the issue of victimization of All India Anganwadi Workers president Hargobind Kaur on the occasion. She said the Anganwadi president had been dismissed from service after she exposed the entire scam. She said a CDPO had been suspended for the same reason.
Mrs Badal said instead of such regressive measures, efforts should be made to regularize the services of Anganwadi workers and helpers who were only getting a salary of Rs 4,500 and Rs 2,200 per month respectively.