Thursday, 26 September 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The workers of the Mahila Congress and many self help groups held a demonstration near the State secretariat on Wednesday. The protesters gathered at the headquarters of the State Congress on the day and marched to the State secretariat. They handed over a memorandum directed to the chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami to the sub divisional magistrate. Addressing the protesters, the State president of Mahila Congress Jyoti Rautela said that on one hand the Uttarakhand government talks about women empowerment and on the other hand, the women and child development department is planning to snatch the work of distribution of Poshahar and ration from the women self help groups. The department intends to hand over this work to the NCCF, an institution owned by the government of India.
She said 10,000 women self-help groups have been distributing nutritious food to pregnant women and children in the age group of six months to three years through Anganwadi centres from the year 2013. About nine lakh people from across the state are benefiting from this scheme and two lakh women are associated with the Take Home Ration (THR) scheme.
Rautela said that earlier also the department minister had planned to hand over the work of THR distribution to contractors but the order was challenged in the High Court (HC) which ordered status quo. However the department tried to harass the women SHGs by stopping their payment. Congress leaders Najma Khan, Asha Manorama Dobariyal Sharma, Urmila Thapa and others attended the protest.
