Away from the heat and dust of the electoral contests, the political rivalry between former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani continued to be visible in the humdrum of Parliamentary procedure.
A written reply to a question by the Congress leader, provided by Irani on August 6, caught the attention not so much because of the nature of the query or the information sought or provided, but because of the history of political competitiveness between the two leaders.
Gandhi's question was about whether anganwadi workers and helpers were receiving additional incentives for COVID-related tasks carried out by them. He sought to know if Irani's ministry had received complaints regarding violence against anganwadi workers during the pandemic. He also wanted to know if a significant number of vacancies for child development project officers (CDPO) and anganwadi lady supervisors are lying vacant across the country.
The query became interesting because of the political background of the two leaders, which involves a fierce fight in Amethi Lok Sabha constituency. The seat, traditionally a Gandhi family stronghold, and which Gandhi represented thrice since 2004, was wrested by Irani in the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.
In her written reply, Irani informed that as anganwadi services is a Centrally-sponsored scheme, which is implemented by states and Union territories, the government has issued directions to the states and Union territories to make all possible arrangements for providing safety equipment like masks and sanitisers to the anganwadi workers. She said anganwadi centres are closed due to the pandemic.
It was stated by Irani that apart from the honorarium paid to the anganwadi workers and helpers, which were enhanced with effect from October 1, 2018, the respective states and UTs are giving monetary incentives to them and various state governments are compensating them out of their own resources for COVID-related activities.
She said no state has reported any incident of violence against anganwadi workers and that it was the duty of the state administration to ensure their safety.
Irani said with regard to vacancies for the post of CDPO, from time to time, states and UTs are advised to fill the sanctioned positions of staff which are lying vacant. She said directions and advisories have been sent to the states and UTs to recruit the personnel on contract basis till such time the vacancies are filled on regular basis.
Gandhi, who was earlier not known to ask many questions in Parliament, has in the current Lok Sabha been a frequent questioner. In the ongoing monsoon session, the Wayanad MP had asked through a written question on whether the government would be able to vaccinate all Indians by December 2021.
On August 5, Gandhi's question to the ministry of civil aviation, which his former party colleague and confidant Jyotiraditya Scindia heads, was answered, albeit by the Minister of State for Civil Aviation V. K. Singh. The question pertained to the crash of the Air India Express flight at Kozhikode in August 2020.
