Mid-day meal workers seek honorarium hike

Fatehgarh Sahib, November 4

Members of the Mid-Day Meal Workers’ Union today held a protest over meagre honorarium being paid to them.

The protesters submitted a memorandum of demands to Assistant Commissioner (Grievances) Promila Sharma to be forwarded to the Finance Minister of Punjab.

Bimla Rani, head of the union, said they had been rendering services for a long time, but the honorarium given to them was meagre, due to which it was difficult for them to make ends meet. She said they had been submitting memorandums repeatedly but neither the minister nor officials were serious about their demands. Despite assurances, no meeting to hear them out had been held.

The union president demanded that the mid-day meal workers should be given regular remuneration of Rs 18,000 per month, uniforms for summer and winter and holiday pay on the lines of other government employees. Among other demands are insurance of Rs 5 lakh and no extra work. Bimla said if their demands were not resolved, they would hold a state-level rally on November 19 to vent their ire.