Mid-day meal workers’ rally on September 3

Amritsar, August 23

The Mid-Day Meal Workers Union, Punjab, today sent a demand letter to Harpal Singh Cheema, Finance Minister, listing their demands.

Addressing the programme, state general secretary of the union Mamata Sharma said that before the Punjab Assembly elections, the Aam Aadmi Party chief had promised that the honorarium of mid-day meal workers would be doubled.

“Till date, the wages have not been hiked. The mid-day meal cooks and workers are paid meagre wages which is sheer oppression. Our demands regarding the safety of mid-day meal workers on duty and incentives including medical and other allowances, also have not been fulfilled,” she said.

Mamata said mid-day meal workers should be brought under the minimum wages law and given a salary of

Rs 10,700 per month. Their demands also include medical and six-month maternity leave. Workers retrenched from mid-day meal scheme should be adjusted in government schools and ESI, EPF facilities be provided to them, she demanded.

The union estimates that there are around 45,000 mid-day meal workers in the state. “They are all ready to hit the streets if the government is not serious on working out solutions,” Mamata said while announcing that the mid-day meal workers would hold a massive rally on September 3 at Anandpur Sahib in front of the residence of Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains.