Mid-day meal workers seek regular jobs, hike in salary

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, January 19

Demanding regularisation of jobs and a hike in salary, members of the Mid-Day Meal Workers’ Union staged a protest here on Sunday. They also took out a protest march, which started from the Mini-Secretariat. They raised slogans in front of Finance Minister Manpreet Badal’s office.

Notably, all district-level units of the union staged protests in their respective districts on Sunday. Due to the protest march on the Bathinda-Goniana Road, commuters were harried a lot.

The police had installed barricades to thwart the attempt of protesters to gherao the office of Manpreet. Police men stopped the protesters outside the Finance Minister’s office.

Addressing the protesters Lakhwinder Kaur, state president of the union, said, “We prepare meal for children no matter it is the rainy season, winters or summers. But, we get only Rs1,700 per month which is quite less considering the rising inflation. We have been demanding regularisation of our services for a long time, but the state government has been ignoring the same. The Education Secretary had talked an about increase in allowances. The file in this regard is stuck in the Finance Department at present.”

The union members said mid-day meal workers in Tamil Nadu had been getting Rs5,500 to Rs7,500 on a monthly basis. They also get benefits on a par with regular employees, but the state government has meted out step-motherly treatment to them, the protesters added.

“The government must release the pending salary of mid-day meal workers in the state. Besides, the facility of adequate number of leave on an annual basis and insurance must be given to every worker,” she added.