Bhubaneswar: Out of 72,587 anganwadi centres (AWCs), in the state, 34,651 do not have their own buildings, women & child development minister Prafulla Samal said Friday in reply to a question in the Assembly.
Of the functional AWCs, only 34,651 centres run in their own buildings while construction work is in progress for 13,566 centres and funds have been sanctioned for building 12,156 centres more. The remaining 8,929 AWCs will be constructed with MGNREGS and District Mineral Foundation (DMF) fund.
As per the data submitted by Samal, the highest 2964 such centres are functioning in Chief Minister’s home district Ganjam, followed by Balasore (2854), Cuttack (2325), Puri (1987) and Jajpur (1982). As many 1605 anganwadi centres run without their own buildings in Samal’s home district Bhadrak. There is no single district in the state where all AWCs have their own roofs.
As per the unit cost of Rs 7 lakh for construction of a single pucca anganwadi centre fixed by the government, Rs 5 lakh is given from MGNREGS while Rs 2 lakh comes from the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS). Out of Rs 2 lakh, the state and the Centre bears Rs 1 lakh each, the minister added.
PNN