Hiked salaries for Anganwadi workers from December: Harish Rao

The Telangana cabinet deciding to fill 5,111 posts of Anganwadi teachers and helpers, says Health Minister.

Siddipet: Finance and Health Minister T Harish Rao said with the Telangana cabinet deciding to fill 5,111 posts of Anganwadi teachers and helpers, the government would pay the increased salaries of Anganwadi teachers and workers from December onwards.

Addressing Anganwadi workers after handing appointment letters to 104 newly recruited teachers and helpers in Siddipet on Wednesday, the Health Minister said the Centre used to pay 90 percent of Anganwadi teachers and helpers’ salaries before the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came into power in 2014 while the State governments used to bear just 10 percent. The BJP-led union government however, reduced its share to 60 percent pushing the burden onto the State.

The Telangana government on the other hand, was paying the highest salaries to Anganwadi teachers and workers in the country while the BJP-ruled Gujarat State was paying a comparatively lesser salary. The State government had increased the Anganwadi teachers’ salaries from Rs.10,500 to Rs.13,650 last year and Annawadi helpers’ salaries to Rs.7,800 from Rs.6,000m, he said, adding that the increased salaries would be paid from December onwards to 67,411 Anganwadi teachers and helpers.

Earlier, the Minister presented Chief Minister’s Relief Fund cheques worth Rs 77.93 lakh to 242 beneficiaries in Siddipet.