After shooting down the Women and Child Development ministry’s proposal of providing pre-cooked meals at anganwadis, the Planning Commission has raised an objection to another ambitious proposal by the ministry.

The ministry, which had proposed a parallel Integrated Child Development Scheme (IV) with financial assistance from the World Bank, was told by the commission that the government-run ICDS should be withdrawn if it plans to introduce a scheme along the same lines.

“Our point is how will we assess both the schemes since the ministry wants to run them simultaneously,” sources in the Planning Commission said. The commission has now asked the ministry to review the proposal with its and World Bank officials and come up with a satisfactory proposal by next month.

The WCD Ministry has proposed to the commission that the ICDS -IV could be financed by slicing off 20 per cent from the original ICDS allocation, while the remaining funds could be sourced from the World Bank by way of a soft loan.

The ICDS is an integrated delivery package of early childhood services for children below six years and is especially meant for those from vulnerable and remote areas. It comprises six components, namely immunisation, supplementary nutrition, referral services, health check-up, pre-school education and nutrition. However, the ICDS-IV proposed by the ministry will be confined to 157 districts in eight states.

The ministry, meanwhile, is dissatisfied with the commission’s approach. “The ICDS requires strengthening manpower support. Even the other flagship programmes are multi-donor funded programmes. Then why does the Planning Commission have a problem with ICDS only?” asked a senior official.