By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Union Deputy Secretary of Ministry of Women and Child Development (MCWD) Gulshan Lal on Thursday expressed disappointment over the delay of the state governments in the North Eastern region in submitting their Annual Plan Implementation Programme (APIPs) under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) within the stipulated time-frame set by the Centre.
“The delay in submitting the APIPs on time will affect the smooth implementation of the ICDS and will cause delay in releasing the funds sanctioned for this purpose in the region”, Lal said.
Lal was addressing a two-day regional conference on Orientation & Information Dissemination on Restructured ICDS scheme for Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura organised by the State Social welfare department at Shillong Club here on Thursday.
Stating that a request has been made by the Centre to all the state governments of the region to submit their APIPs within the stipulated time, the Union Deputy Secretary said, “These are the key issues the state government has to stress upon to ensure that the necessary initiatives taken by the Centre for the restructuring and strengthening of the ICDS across the country will not go waste.”
However, during the conference, it was informed
that the Meghalaya government had already sent the APIP to the Centre and is currently awaiting approval for the same.
The implementation of this APIP will further enhance setting up of more Anganwadi centres in all the districts of the State right to the grass root level to ensure that the population are given the basic amenities offered by the government through the ICDS.
It was informed that restructuring and strengthening of the ICDS would be made effective in all the districts by April this year.
Elaborating on the key focus of this programme, Lal said that the programme would be based on the historical part of ICDS and overview of restructuring and focus on new issues which would visualize the actions to be implemented by the concerned state departments.
It may be mentioned that the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had recently approved the strengthening and restructuring of Integrated Child Development Services Scheme in support of continued implementation of the Scheme in 12th Five Year Plan.
The conference which was also attended by representatives from Nagaland and Tripura deliberated on the issues concerning the region, problems faced by the people of the region in implementing this scheme and stressed on acceptability to implement the programmes in view of the topographical condition of the region.
Meanwhile, addressing the gathering as the chief guest, Social Welfare Minister Deborah C Marak assured that the department would prioritize women and children of the State and the service will also percolate to the grassroot level.
“There is a need for the participants to interact, discuss and give suggestions and complaints to the officials from the Government of India and urge to improve the system of mechanism best suited to the North Eastern Region”, she added.
ICDS is a government initiative aimed at tackling malnutrition and health problems in children below 6 years of age and their mothers.
The conference was also attended by the Principal Secretary in charge of Social Welfare Department, PW Ingty, Social Welfare Director HM Shangpliang and Commissioner and Secretary in charge of Social Welfare department T Dkhar besides others.