Mid-day meal workers’ union to hold ‘demand fortnight’ from October 25
Jalandhar, October 20
Mid-day meal workers today announced that they would hold ‘demand fortnight’ from October 25 to November 10 in the state. If their demands were not accepted they would hold a state-level rally would at Dirba on November 19.
The declarations were made following a meeting of the Mid-Day Meal Workers’ Union, Punjab, under the chairmanship of state president Bimala Rani in Jalandhar today.
Demands of the mid-day meal workers and their further struggles were announced while discussing the views of the Punjab government, showing seriousness to settle the demands of the mid-day meal workers despite the struggle.
Sharing the proceedings of the meeting with the press, Kamaljit Kaur said the state government under CM Bhagwant Singh Mann had not doubled the honorarium of the mid-day meal workers as per the election promise, even after the passage of one and a half years. She said due to this, all the mid-day meal workers were angered towards the government.
After a serious discussion, it was unanimously decided that to put pressure on the state government to double the honorarium of the mid-day meal workers. Thereafter, a state-level rally will be held on November 19 at Dirba (Sangrur), the constituency of Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema.
They said demand letters will be sent during the fortnight to the state Finance Minister through DCs.
Their demands include doubling the honorarium of mid-day meal workers to Rs 6,500 per month which was equal to the one being paid by neighbouring state of Haryana, regular jobs, Rs 5 lakh insurance per worker, two uniforms during the year and one additional worker for every 25 children. They demanded a minimum monthly wage of Rs 18,000 for mid-day meal workers.
Finance secretary Praveen Kaur, Fatehgarh Sahib, Balwinder Kaur, president, Hoshiarpur, Mamata Saidpur, president, Kapurthala, Kamlesh Kaur, president, Ropar, Jaswinder Kaur Tahli, president, Jalandhar, Simranjit Pasla, Rimpi Rani, president, Nawanshahr, Santosh Bassi, president Pathankot and Jasveer Kaur were among others present at the meeting.
