Anganbadi Sevikas in Bihar set to get 50% hike in remuneration

The hike will be effective from October. Anganbadi workers have been agitating for the past many months for reasonable increase in their honorarium.

The Bihar cabinet on Tuesday approved a 50 per cent hike in remuneration of Anganbadi sevikas attached with various integrated child development scheme (ICDS) centres being run by the social welfare department across the state.

As per the decision, Anganbadi Sevikas will now be paid ₹4,500 per month against the existing monthly honorarium of ₹3,000 (HT Fi)

As per the decision, Anganbadi Sevikas will now be paid ₹4,500 per month against the existing monthly honorarium of ₹3,000. The enhancement, officials said, was being made in accordance with a letter from the government of India.

The hike will be effective from October. Anganbadi workers have been agitating for the past many months for reasonable increase in their honorarium.

There are over one lakh Anganbadi centres and 7,115 mini centres in the state.

Briefing mediapersons after the cabinet meeting headed by chief minister Nitish Kumar, special secretary of cabinet secretariat department, Upendra Nath Pandey, said the about 1.60 lakh sevikas would benefit from the decision taken Tuesday.

There are about 2.21 lakh sanctioned posts of Anganbadi Sevikas in the state. The state government will have to incur an annual burden of ₹55 crore additional for the hike in their honorarium.

In another important decision, the cabinet gave its nod for a high-level six-lane road between Digha Ghat to R-Block round about. The 6.30km-stretch of road will be equipped with state-of-the art traffic facilities and have a couple of flyovers and underpasses along with drainage system. A total of 379.57 crore is estimated to cost on the construction of road.

The stretch was recently handed over the state government by the Indian Railways on a payment of ₹221 crore after a string of meetings between officials of the state government and those of the railway board.

The state cabinet also okayed release of ₹32.50 crore to encourage farm mechanisation in 13 districts. The amount will be used to give incentives to farmers on purchase of modern farm equipment.