State govt revokes appointment of 391 anganwadi workers

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab government has revoked the appointment of 391 anganwadi workers, which were made by the erstwhile government, due to “gross irregularities”.

“391 appointments of the anganwadi workers were revoked due to lack of transparency,” a spokesperson said.

He said the SAD-BJP government had filled up vacancies of 49 workers and 25 helpers in the 114 anganwadi centres in the state.

“In addition, a recruitment process of anganwadi workers at the 545 mini centres has been started,” he added.

The state government also said it will give employment letters to over 800 canal department revenue officials “purely on merit”.

Both the decisions were part of the review process undertaken by the Amarinder Singh government on all appointments by the previous government in last few months of its “misrule.” “While prima facie, the appointments of the revenue officials (patwaris) were found to be in order, many of the anganwadi workers appointed by the previous government were found to be suffering from serious irregularities in a departmental inquiry.

It had been decided, therefore, to scrap those,” said the spokesperson.

Amarinder Singh had asked the department to ensure that total transparency is maintained in the fresh recruitment process, he said.