Vijayawada: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has stressed on providing quality food to children at Anganwadi Centres. There is a need to rope in Markfed for purchase and distribution of essentials as a pilot project, he said, and called for third-party inspection to ensure supply of quality food.
The Chief Minister chaired a high-level review meeting on maintenance of anganwadi centres, provision of quality food to children and welfare of differently abled persons, attended by minister for women and child welfare, Usha Sricharan, and senior officials here on Monday.
The Chief Minister directed the officials to address the lapses in distribution of food with more emphasis on quality food. Supply only sortex rice to anganwadi centres and for mid-day meal in schools, he said.
He said there must be special attention to train children at Anganwadi centres on language and its pronunciation. They must be taught pre-primary-1 and 2 text books in bilingual format.
The CM directed the officials to display posters with special numbers at all anganwadi centres to enable children or their parents to lodge complaints on lapses in maintenance of these.
Meanwhile, officials promised the CM they would fill up the posts of supervisors at AWCs by Sept. 30 and they would be holding screening tests for this purpose in a transparent manner. After the interviews, they would announce the marks. Those who took part in the screening tests could, if they so desire, get their answer scripts to verify them and check about any lapse in the evaluation and counting of marks.
Jagan advised the officials to set up a special fund for maintenance and cleanliness of AWCs on lines of the Toilet Maintenance Fund and School Maintenance Fund in schools.
As for the welfare of differently abled persons, the CM asked the officials to provide requisite services to these persons at village and ward secretariats. Upgradation of a Bhavitha Centre in every assembly segment for their benefit was also advised.
The Chief Minister felt the need to appoint an IAS officer to supervise the functioning and maintenance of juvenile homes in the state.
