Gadchiroli Jan. 31 (District Correspondent) The women cooks working under the Amrit Aahar Yojana in the tribal-dominated, remote and backward Gadchiroli district dashed to the office of block development Officer of Korchi and submitted a memorandum demanding early payment of the pending honorarium and also increase in their honorarium.
The cooks are being given a monthly honorarium of only Rs. 1,000 by the government. But they are not being paid the honorarium on time, hence the women are facing difficulties in running their families.
Since the honorarium is pending for the last 8 months, the women, under the leadership of Mr. Krishna Chaudhary, leader of the Cooks Association, knocked on the door of the Panchayat Samiti Korchi office and demanded that the pending honorarium be paid immediately. They warned to launch an intensive agitation if the pending honorarium is not paid to them immediately.
With the aim of providing nutritious food to the lactating mothers and the babies so that they remain healthy, the government started the Bharat Ratna Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Amrit Aahar Yojana in the year 2016. Under this scheme which is being run in the PESA area of Gadchiroli district, a total of 696 women have been appointed as Anganwadi cooks.
Out of these cooks, 60 are in Aheri tehsil, 37 in Armori, 67 in Bhamragad, 13 in Chamorshi, 14 in Desaiganj, 131 in Dhanora, 78 in Etapalli, 19 in Gadchiroli, 85 in Korchi, Kurkheda- 229, Mulchera -24, Sironcha- 29, mentioned the memorandum. Amrut Aahar Anganwadi self-cooker women are paid only Rs. 1000 per month as honorarium. These women are facing a lot of difficulties as they have not received the honorarium for the last 8 months, it was pointed out.
The women have reached the point of dying of hunger hence they should be paid the honorarium early, it was demanded. Ms. Sima Gota, Sushila Kerami, Shakuntala Gawde, Sunita Gawde, Rupa Kumre, Madhuri Halami and many other women cooks of the district including Korchi tehsil were present in large numbers.
