MID-DAY MEAL SCHEME
Cooks lying, no salaries due: Maluka
Shivani Bhakoo
Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, October 3
While thousands of cooks and workers working under the Mid-Day Meal Scheme in Punjab are sore over the lackadaisical attitude adopted by the state government in releasing their salaries pending since March 2013, the Education Minister Sikandar Singh Maluka, however, denied the allegations.
He said no salaries of cooks/helpers were pending with the department.
Talking to The Tribune, Maluka said the cooks were simply telling lies as no salary of theirs was pending with the department. "They are paid Rs 1,200 a month, out of which Rs 1,000 comes from the Central Government and state government puts just Rs 200. I have checked it with the authorities, no salary is pending with us," said Maluka.
On being asked that why thousands of cooks/ helpers were protesting due to "non-payment" of salaries, Maluka said that these cooks were simply telling lies to put blame on the government. "They are demanding that their salaries be increased to Rs 5,000 and regularisation of their jobs. We have enough funds in the department, so we don't have any reason to stop anybody's salary," said Maluka.
Meanwhile, thousands of cooks and workers, preparing meals at various government schools in Punjab had protested against the state government for not paying them the monthly salaries since March 2013 recently. Swaran Singh, president, National Child Labour Project (schools), said the district had about 40 schools under the NCLP and none of the cooks/workers had got the salaries for the past four to five months.
Suresh Sood, general secretary (district), INTUC Council, said the cooks/workers were poor and needy persons, whose salaries should not have been stopped by the government. "We will support them in their struggle as in Rs 1200 it is virtually impossible to run a household."
Cooks lying, no salaries due: Maluka
Shivani Bhakoo
Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, October 3
While thousands of cooks and workers working under the Mid-Day Meal Scheme in Punjab are sore over the lackadaisical attitude adopted by the state government in releasing their salaries pending since March 2013, the Education Minister Sikandar Singh Maluka, however, denied the allegations.
He said no salaries of cooks/helpers were pending with the department.
Talking to The Tribune, Maluka said the cooks were simply telling lies as no salary of theirs was pending with the department. "They are paid Rs 1,200 a month, out of which Rs 1,000 comes from the Central Government and state government puts just Rs 200. I have checked it with the authorities, no salary is pending with us," said Maluka.
On being asked that why thousands of cooks/ helpers were protesting due to "non-payment" of salaries, Maluka said that these cooks were simply telling lies to put blame on the government. "They are demanding that their salaries be increased to Rs 5,000 and regularisation of their jobs. We have enough funds in the department, so we don't have any reason to stop anybody's salary," said Maluka.
Meanwhile, thousands of cooks and workers, preparing meals at various government schools in Punjab had protested against the state government for not paying them the monthly salaries since March 2013 recently. Swaran Singh, president, National Child Labour Project (schools), said the district had about 40 schools under the NCLP and none of the cooks/workers had got the salaries for the past four to five months.
Suresh Sood, general secretary (district), INTUC Council, said the cooks/workers were poor and needy persons, whose salaries should not have been stopped by the government. "We will support them in their struggle as in Rs 1200 it is virtually impossible to run a household."
No comments:
Post a Comment