Cooks working in government schools protest in Handwara over pending salary

Kupwara, Jul 12: Cooks working in government schools under various schemes Saturday held a peaceful protest at Chinar Park Handwara, in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district to highlight their grievances regarding non-payment of salaries as per the Minimum Wages Act.

The protesters said that they were working at par with the regular employees from several decades but every government has been shown discriminatory approach towards fulfilling their demands.

“We are the backbone of government schools as we provide essential service to the students. Least the government can do to provide us wages as per Minimum Wages Act,” said a 70-year-old female protestor.

“We have donated land to the education department without any compensation and expected that our services will be regularised but nothing like that has happened till date. The successive regimes have pushed us to enduring hardships,” she added.

Another female protester said that she has been working in the department for the last one decade hoping that her services would be regularized.

“We are supposed to cook midway meals only but our services are being utilised in different chores,” she said.

The cooks said they have been working on meager wages hoping that the government would regularise their services.

“For the last one year, we have been deprived of our salaries. If the department fails to provide us pending salaries, we will not return to work what so ever,” the cooks threatened.

Employees appealed to the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and other concerned higher officials to enhance their wages and make their services permanent so that their long pending demands are fulfilled and their hardships are alleviated.