Chandigarh, Oct. 30 -- The Punjab government on Wednesday told the Punjab and Haryana high court that it has released the pending honorarium to anganwadi workers up to the month of September. During resumed hearing of a suo motu plea, the state's counsel informed the court that payments for April to September 2025 - Rs.4,500 per month for anganwadi workers and Rs.2,250 per month for helpers - has now been released. The government attributed the delay to "a technical issue", which has since been resolved in coordination with the Centre. The court had taken suo motu notice on October 3 over reports of non-payment of dues to over 50,000 anganwadi workers in the state. A compliance affidavit was also submitted by the state's chief secretary detailing the reasons for delay and further submitting that now arrears have been cleared. The court has disposed of the plea while observing that though the arrears were cleared, the workers had remained unpaid for six months for which the state may consider giving interest on the arrears in 60 days' time. "Since the state of Punjab is a welfare state, it may also consider paying appropriate quantum of interest over the delayed payment of honorarium to the anganwadi workers who had not received honorarium for the last several months," the bench further said, adding that it hoped the state would rise to the occasion and pass appropriate orders instead of rejecting the observation of the court in a "mechanical manner" and consider the payment of interest to these workers on delayed payment....