THE air almost crackles with heat. The faces of the children are wilting. A gaping hole in the back wall leads to the 'kitchen', a sooty mess, which lacks not only a gas connection but also vessels to cook. This is the status of an anganwadi in New Jothiammal Nagar, Saidapet. There is no electricity. Mosquitoes swarm around the room which has no books or any other essential supplies. The anganwadi was created after a survey in the area in October which revealed that there were too many children to be accommodated there. Six months later, the anganwadi, catering to 25 children functions in a 7x7 feet rented room with asbestos sheets as its roof. ''We were promised a building by the government but the promise was not kept. We send the children home after their meal because it is too hot to stay here,'' said N Majula, an anganwadi worker. It was MGR's dream that no child in the state goes hungry. Despite criticism, he launched the Puratchi Thalaivar MGR Nutritious Meal Programme in 1982. The anganwadis or child care centres where these noon meals are served would probably make the former Chief Minister turn in his grave. There is no dearth of funding - the 50,433 anganwadis in Tamil Nadu (of which 1,345 are in Chennai) come under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Project, which is primarily funded by the Central Government. This year's state budget allocates Rs 780 crore for the ICDS project. In addition, Rs 870 crore has been allocated for the state's noon meal programme under which 44 paise is spent on a child per day for his/her meal. The funding for modernisation of the centres, however, seems to have reached some angnawadis and left behind many others. In another anganwadi in the area, the worker has borrowed electricity from a house nearby, installed a fan and pays for it from her salary. ''The government is not taking any step to improve the infrasturucture here. We have 40 children and there is no space. When it rains, we have to cook in our house and bring the food here,'' she said. The Project Director of ICDS and senior social welfare officials were no available for comment.