VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy has announced that candle rallies would be held all over the state on Sunday, setting off International Women's Day celebrations for the next day on March 8.
Marking the day, 2,000 stands with QR code would be arranged for women for easy download of the Disha application on their mobile phones. There would be a 10 per cent discount to women on the purchase of mobiles in select shopping malls on this Monday, a special day off to all women employees in the police department and five additional casual leaves to all women employees, the CM announced on Thursday.
These decisions were taken during a review meeting held at the CM’s camp office in Tadepalli. It was also decided to felicitate two women constables from each wing and hold a short film competition on women's safety and empowerment.
The government will also organise an annual health checkup for Anganwadi employees. The chief minister also announced a grant of Rs 5 lakh on behalf of the government to the non-gazetted women employees union. An MoU would be signed with SERP, MEPMA and Hindustan Lever to ensure sanitary pads are made available at YSR Cheyutha shops at a discounted price. The government will lay special focus on training girls of Plus-1 and Plus-2 to prepare them for competitive exams.
The CM advised officials to set up hoardings with details of Disha initiatives in front of junior colleges and other higher educational institutions.
Reviewing matters of YSR pre-primary schools, the Chief Minister had a close look at the books and teaching aids designed for pre-primary children and displayed by officials of the women and child welfare department. The CM also reviewed the progress of the Nadu Nedu works in Anganwadis.
Construction of new buildings and revamping of existing buildings is being done in 44,119 Anganwadi centres. The work on Anganwadi buildings should be started simultaneously in urban and rural areas, the CM said.
The government will provide 4,17,508 books for children of PP-1 class and 4,17,508 books for PP-2 children. The distribution of books will start on March 20 and would be completed by April 5. It has already distributed 16 of the 26 teaching aids to Anganwadi and the remaining 10 will be distributed within a month.
The CM advised officials to provide an English-Telugu dictionary in schools and ensure the students learned the meaning of a new word every day. “Implement a similar programme in Anganwadi centres,” he said.
The officials said the details on the YSR Poshana and YSR Sampoorna Poshana Plus are being provided through posters. They are being set up in the village, ward secretariat and Anganwadi centres. They said an SOP book is being provided with the prescribed rules on providing good food and hygiene to children. Videos on the same are being shared to the students.
Women and child welfare minister Thaneti Vanitha, DGP Gautam Sawang, higher education special chief secretary Satish Chandra, principal secretaries Y. Srilakshmi (municipal and urban development), A.R. Anuradha (women and child welfare), Anil Kumar Singhal (medical and health), Gopalakrishna Dwivedi (Panchayati Raj and rural development), Shashi Bhushan Kumar (GAD), Kumar Vishwajeet (home) were present at the meeting.
DIG (technical services) G. Palaraju, health and family welfare commissioner Katamaneni Bhaskar, finance secretary Kartikeya Mishra, BC welfare director B. Rama Rao, Disha special officer Deepika Patil, MEPMA managing director V. Vijayalakshmi and other officials were present.
