Brahmapur, Not a day or two,the anganwadi centre at Kujidhepa village under Rambha police limits in Ganjam district almost remained locked since last nine months,due to a tussle between the Anganwadi worker and villagers.Following which the beneficiaries,particularly the kids deprieved from the cooked food.Source said,the tussle started when the village committee demanded money from the Anganwadi worker and as she denied to oblige,the village committeeallegedly imposed social boycott on the family of the Anganwadi worker and her parents residing in the village.No one talks with us and the shops in the village denied to sell anything to us,said the anganwadi worker,Rita pradhan.The village committee also asked the villagers not to go to the anganwadi centre.However,Rita used to open the centre as usual,but no kid came to it. Subsequently,someone changed the lock of the centre and replaced with a new one and since than Rita is sitting at the verandha of the centre for couple of hours everyday.The irony is that,all including the police and administration are well aware about the situation,still the stalemate situation continues.Rita has two kids and her husband is a construction supervisor.Her both the kids are studying in a school in another village and apprehending untoward incident,her husband who used to stay out oof the village,now compelled to stay in his house.As the social boycott has little impect on Rita`s family,this year the committee didnot alllow her family to cultivate their lands.However,as she appealed the police,the committee though allowed for cultivation,but continued the social boycott and police too remained mum,on the pretext that,the cultivation problem solved and the committee denied the allegation of sosical boycott.The village has over 200 families and a population of over 600 persons.The anganwadi centre in the village used to provide necessary health guidence and govt prescribed nutrition to 4 pregnant women,15 kids of 7 months to 3 year old,20 kids of 3 years to 6 years and 23 girls.To solve the problem,various authorities had visited the village and asked the villagers,but to no avail.In such a situation,however Rita continued her duty.During the current month,through the helper of the center she started providing the dry articles of nutrition to the kids and the necessary guidence to the pregnant mothers and girls,but the cooked food could not be served to the kids.As per the govt norms,each kid supposed to get cooked breakfast and lunch at the centre in addition to the dry nutrition foods,as they asked not to go to the centre.Now the village committee strongly refuted the allegations of social boycott and said its the personal affair of the anganwadi workers to mix with the villagers or not.Similarly Rambha IIC,Satyabrata bhutia denied the social boycott allegation.He said,the dispute over the cultivation has already been solved.Admiting the stalemate situation in the village,CDPO,Salila pradhann said repeated attempts has been made to sortout the problem,but not solved.She said,though the beneficiaries deprieved from the benefits,the distribution of benefits resumed and hoped for restore of normalcy.When contacted,collector Dibyajyoti parida said several attempts were made to solve the crisis.Soon we will initiate action to solve the dispute.With a objective to provide child and maternal care,combat hunger and malnutrition,Anganwadi centres has been opened and a huge amount is being spent for the purpose.But lack of coordination between concerened departments and proper supervision,the much hyped scheme deprieved the beneficiaries from the assured benefits for several months.
