Thursday, 20 June 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Anganwadi workers have decided to write to the chief minister and the officials of the Women Empowerment and Child Development (WECD) department, urging them to address their long- pending demands of monthly allowance hike and better retirement benefits.
Stating this, the president of the Anganwadi Workers Association, Rekha Negi said that their demands for higher monthly wages and better retirement benefits are old. “We have been pressing for these demands for several years but our pleas keep falling on deaf ears. We were told a few months back that the government could not proceed on the matter due to the enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC). Now, with MCC being lifted, we have decided to send another letter to the CM Pushkar Singh Dhami and WECD officials to remind them of our twin demands,” she added.
Negi further said that the current allowance they have been receiving is insufficient to meet the basic needs of their lives. “We can hardly support our families with the meagre allowance we receive. So, we are demanding a hike to make it Rs 18, 000,” she said.
She said that the Anganwadi workers are contributing Rs 100 per month from their remuneration to the State government so the government should pay a sum of Rs 10 lakh to every worker on her retirement.
“We hope that the government will consider our demands sympathetically and fulfil these soon,” she said while warning that in case the government fails to address the demands, they would be left with no other option but to resort to an indefinite stir across the State.
To recall, prior to the MCC enforcement, the Anganwadi workers had staged sit-in across the State on the same issue for several days. Besides, with the agitation on, they had shut down the Anganwadi centres across the State.
