Ministers' Talks with Anganwadis Fail, Agitation to Continue

Vijayawada: The talks between leaders of the protesting Anganwadi employees and the AP government failed to yield positive results on Tuesday. These workers would continue their agitations till their demands are met, the leaders said.

Education minister Botsa Satyanarayana urged the union leaders to give some more time to the government to resolve the issues of Anganwadi workers and helpers and postpone the strike till Sankranti.

A ‘group of ministers’ met and discussed the issues under the chairmanship of minister Satyanarayana. Government adviser (public affairs) Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy, chief secretary Jawahar Reddy and other officials participated in the talks.

They advised the leaders to postpone the strike till Sankranti as various commodities including take-home ration have to be distributed to pregnant women, infants and children through Anganwadi centres from Jan 5.

They pointed out that 10 out of their 11 issues have been resolved and the government increased their retirement age from 60 to 62 and increased the promotion age from 45 to 50 years. TA and DAs and service benefits given to Anganwadi workers were increased from '50,000 to '1 lakh and '25,000 to Rs.40,000 for helpers and GOs issued in these respects, the government made it clear.

There is only one demand left—about an increase in their honorarium -- which would be considered after Sankranti, the leaders were told.

The state would write a letter to the central government on the issue of gratuity of Anganwadi staff.

The group of ministers reiterated that the government is fully positive towards solving the problems of Anganwadi staff and hence “the strike should be postponed until Sankranti.”

Finance department special chief secretary S Rawat, women and child welfare department principal secretary G Jayalakshmi, finance department chief secretary (HR) Chiranjeevi Chaudhary, women and child welfare director Vijaya Krishnan and other officials participated in the talks.

On behalf of Anganwadi workers and helpers, CITU state general secretary M Subbaravamma, Anganwadi workers and helpers state president Veni Rani, vice president Supraja, Anganwadi helpers vice president Ramadevi, IFTU state president Gangavathi, vice president Bharati, Secretary Jyoti, AITUC working president Prema, vice president Florence, general secretary Lalitha and others were present.