Cooks working in Govt schools protest in Handwara over pending salaries

Kupwara, Apr 21: Cooks working in government schools under various schemes Tuesday held a peaceful protest at Chinar Park Handwara, in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district with an aim 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 discriminatory towards them in fulfilling their demands. The protesting cooks, mostly women, urged the government to either discontinue the mid-day meal scheme in schools or ensure they are paid fair and regular wages. They said their current earnings of just Rs 30 per day are insufficient to meet even basic needs.

“We are earning just Rs 30 a day. How can we survive in today’s times?” one of the protesting women said. “We happen to be the backbone of government schools providing essential service to the students. Least the government can do to provide us wages as per Minimum Wages Act,” said a female protestor. “We have donated land to the education department without any compensation believing that our services will be regularized but nothing like that happened thereby pushing us to enduring hardships,” she added.

“I have been working in the department for the last one decade hoping that my services would be regularized but nothing like that happened. We are not supposed to cook midway meals only but our services are being utilized in different chores,” said another female protestor. “We have been working on meagre wages hoping that sooner or later the government would make us permanent but nothing concrete has been done in this regard and we are left high and dry,” she added. Employees appealed 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 lessened.