Mid-day meal workers stage protest

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, June 3: Members of the Sadou Asom Madhyah Bhojan Karmachari Union (SAMBKU) staged a protest rally at Dighalipukhuripar in the city today demanding solution to their problems.

 In a statement issued to the press today, Union’s president Lila Saikia and secretary Chitra Rajbongshi said: “A remuneration of Rs 1,000 that was fixed in 2009 hasn’t been revised as yet. There has been high inflation, in the meantime. Our demand for raising our remuneration to Rs 5,000 a month continues to fall on deaf ear of Dispur. In such a situation, the last Assembly session has decided to hand over the mid-day meal scheme to Akshay Patra Foundation. This will lead a number of people engaged in the mid-day meal scheme to lose their jobs. According to government’s records there are 1.14 lakh cooks under the scheme in the State. If the government doesn’t meet our demands by June 15, we’ll be resort to a vigorous agitation.”

They submitted a five-point charter of demands to the Chief Minister. The demands are – cancellation of the decision to hand over the mid-day meal scheme to Akshay Patra Foundation, fixation of their remuneration at Rs 5,000 per month, arrangement for paying remuneration for 12 months a year, etc.