SHILLONG, August 11: The All Meghalaya Mid-day Meal Workers Union has threatened to agitate as the Government has refused to pay heed to their requests of increasing their wages which is at present only Rs.1000/- a month to cook the mid-day meal in schools.
The leader of the AMMWU, Smti. Bilin Kurbah said that the mid-day meal cooks have no choice but to take on to the street if the Government does not at all pay heed to their demand to their wages, she also informed that the Union time and again had sent appeals to the Government to enhance their wages from the existing Rs.1000/-.
As per the statement of Kurbah, there are 18,500 mid-day meal cooks in schools and they are spread out across the whole State, she said that as wage earners they have had to wait and be patient but till date the Government has not even given a thought to their problems.
Kenneth Shadap who has been fighting for the right of the mid-day meal cooks said that the cooks besides being paid a meagre amount are employed only for 10 months in a year, he also said that from 2018 he had spoken about the problems faced by the cooks, and even officers had expressed that Rs.1000/- a month as wage is no longer in keeping with the present time, however, while officers sent an advice that the Government enhance their wages to Rs.3000/- per month, the advice was rejected stating that it was too high.
