Social Welfare Minister Paul Lyngdoh today informed the Assembly that there are 1,500 uncovered villages in Meghalaya that are eligible for main and mini anganwadi centres.
In response to opposition MLA Miani D Shira, who raised the matter, Lyngdoh informed that these 1,500 or so villages are being taken care of under the Early Childhood Development Programme.
He also said that the government has received a large number of applications for anganwadi centres that are being processed and will be sanctioned in due course of time.
He also said that the intention of his department is to ensure that all villages which fulfill the eligibility criteria will be covered by the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) project.
The minister also assured that the department has already moved the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development for total coverage of all villages and, within the next one or two years, the state should be in a position to set up centres wherever these villages meet the criteria.
In the same time period, the department will be in a position to repair centres in need of such intervention, he added while informing that water is being pumped to existing centres through the Jal Jeevan Mission.
“I have been visiting various district headquarters in the past three months and a review meeting will be taken in October with all stakeholders where these centres are in existence and wherever such centres are in a dilapidated condition we will certainly tune up their condition,” Lyngdoh said.
The department will also be floating expressions of interest (EOIs) for the supply of educational kits to the anganwadi centres while some have already been provided with smart mobile phones.
