Cuttack, March 12: The state government is yet to make substantial progress in construction of buildings for anganwadi centres across the state with funds sanctioned for the purpose by the Centre.

The central government’s integrated child development scheme caters to various services related to children and women, including health, immunisation, nutrition, health education, supplementary nutrition programme and pre-school education, through the network of anganwadi centres.

The central government had sanctioned about Rs 569.96 crore for construction of 14,938 anganwadi centres across the state in 2010. But the state government had allegedly managed to come up with only 905 buildings so far.

This has come into focus with a PIL seeking intervention of Orissa High Court for utilisation of the funds sanctioned for construction of anganwadi centre buildings “within a stipulated period”.

The PIL, filed by RTI activist Pradip Pradhan, has sought the court’s direction for formation of a state-level monitoring committee for utilisation of central government funds for construction of anganwadi centres.

“Food and other edible items can not be preserved properly because of the delay in construction of the centres. Kids are being forced to take food in unhygienic conditions, which is becoming fatal for them at times. Besides, the central government is not sanctioning further funds because of the delay in construction of the buildings,” alleged the petition filed on his behalf by Advocate Kshirod Rout on Tuesday.

The central government had sanctioned 71,306 anganwadi centres for the state. But only 18,958 of them have their own buildings. Rest of the buildings function from nearby schools or rented premises.

On the basis of the information accessed through RTI, Pradhan said: “The central government had sanctioned Rs 26,996 lakh for construction of 6,559 anganwadi centre buildings during 2010-11 to 2013-14. But in the last four years, construction of only 151 buildings have been completed”.

“Similarly, the 13 the Finance Commission sanctioned Rs 300 crores for construction of 8,000 anganwadi centres, but construction of only 754 buildings have so far been completed,” the petitioner said.

The PIL cites the tragic case of the death of seven children at an anganwadi centre on July 9, 2012. The deaths had occurred because of collapse of the wall of the anganwadi centre at Nelia Upper Primary School at Suansia Sahi in Ranpur block in Nayagarh district. The tragic incident occurred when children were taking mid-day meals in the old dilapidated part of the school.

On November 20, 2012, the high court had awarded Rs 5 lakh compensation to the parents of each of the seven children who had died in the wall collapse. While describing it as a shocking incident, the high court had directed the state government to take adequate safety measures so that such accidents do not happen again in future.