Pay hike to benefit 25 lakh Anganwadi workers: Jaitley
New Delhi, Sep 15 : Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBM) has become a "people's movement" with a large participation of women, noting that the decision to hike compensation will benefit around 25 lakh Anganwadi workers and their families.
The Minister said SBM has witnessed a "phenomenal increase" in rural sanitation from 39 per cent to 92 per cent in the last four years.
He said initially people in the rural areas were reluctant to accept the scheme and thus required a "behavioural change". The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan mission has transformed into a movement with women playing a leading role in it.
"We all knew that the dignity of women demanded privacy of toilet," Jaitley said in a blog. He said in several parts of India toilets have been named 'Izzat Ghar'.
He said the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was "arguably the most successful" of government schemes.
Referring to the target of making India free from open defecation by 2019 -- the 150th year of Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary -- the Finance Minister pointed to the preventive health care benefits of the scheme.
"Global experts believe the SBM will have saved over three lakh lives in the country by the time we become 'open-defecation-free' in 2019," he said.
Referring'to government's decision to enhance the compensation paid to the Anganwadi workers and the Asha workers, he said the Anganwadi workers are the mainstay of the National Nutrition Mission.
There are approximately 12.9 lakh Anganwadi workers and 11.6 lakh Anganwadi helpers. These benefits would be available to these 24.9 lakh Anganwadi workers and their families.
He said the remuneration of Anganwadi workers has been raised from Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,500 per month and that of mini Anganwadi workers from Rs 2,250 has been increased to Rs 3,500.
Remuneration of Anganwadi helpers has been increased from Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,250 per month.
These workers will also get an incentive of Rs 500 per month and Rs 250 per month respectively on the basis of the real-time monitoring of performance, he said.
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‘Pay worker before sweat dries’: Madras HC invokes prophet’s teaching to settle lawyer’s dues
Madurai: Invoking the teachings of Prophet Muhammad to emphasise principles of fairness in labour jurisprudence, the Madras High Court has directed the Madurai City Municipal Corporation to settle the unpaid legal fees of a former standing counsel. Justice G.R. Swaminathan, in an order passed on Saturday, referred to the prophetic principle, “pay the worker before his sweat dries”, observing that this tenet is a facet of fairness eminently applicable to service and labour law.
The court was hearing a plea filed by P. Thirumalai, who served as the standing counsel for the Madurai City Municipal Corporation for over 14 years, from 1992 to 2006. Thirumalai contended that the civic body had failed to pay outstanding dues amounting to Rs 13.05 lakh for his representation in approximately 818 cases before the Madurai District Courts. The current petition was filed after the Corporation rejected a substantial part of his claim following a previous court direction to consider his representation.
Addressing the practical difficulties faced by the petitioner, who stated he could not afford to engage a clerk to obtain certified copies of the 818 judgments to substantiate his work, Justice Swaminathan devised a pragmatic solution. The court permitted the former counsel to approach the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) with a list of cases. The DLSA has been directed to procure the certified copies within two months, with the costs to be borne by the corporation and later deducted from the petitioner’s final settlement.
While the court acknowledged the Corporation's stance that fee bills must be in order, it ordered the civic body to settle the dues within two months of receiving the records from the DLSA.
However, citing the petitioner’s 18-year delay in challenging the non-payment, the court ruled that the settlement would be made without interest.
Beyond the specific relief granted to the petitioner, the single-judge bench made strong observations regarding the administration of legal fees and public funds. Justice Swaminathan termed the petitioner’s claim a "pittance" compared to the number of his appearances and expressed concern over the disparity in payments within the legal field. He noted that while "scandalously high amounts" are often paid to certain senior counsels and law officers by government and quasi-government bodies, others struggle to receive basic dues. The court observed that good governance requires public funds to be drawn on a measured basis and not distributed capriciously to a favoured few.
The Judge also flagged the "embarrassment" caused by the high number of Additional Advocate Generals (AAGs) in the state, noting that the appointment of nearly a dozen officers leads to work being allotted unnecessarily. He criticized the frequent practice of government counsel seeking adjournments on the pretext that an engaged AAG is appearing elsewhere. Justice Swaminathan expressed hope that such practices would cease in the Madurai Bench and that the Additional Advocate Generals would "turn a new leaf" from 2026.
