Mid-day meal cooks demand increase in wages

Srinagar, July 31: Cooks who prepare mid-day meals for students in government schools in Kashmir Valley have urged the government to increase their wages and regularise their services.Speaking to Rising Kashmir, Bilal Ahmad Lone, a cook from Hardu Malapora said, “We are employed in government schools as cooks. We have been engaged in the school education department since 2005. We are still receiving only Rs 1,000 as our monthly wages from the last 20 years.””Our responsibility is to prepare and distribute mid-day meals to the students. The wages provided by the government are exceedingly low. While a labourer can earn Rs 700 in a single day, we are only receiving Rs 1,000 per month,” he said.Since our engagement with the school education department, their wages have not seen any increase over the past 20 years. “We continue to receive the same amount we were paid in 2005,” they said.”Other employees in the government sector, such as daily wagers, casual labourers, need-based workers, and seasonal workers, receive significantly higher wages compared to the cooks in the school education department,” he added.Bilal said that while the government frequently discusses the regularisation of services for casual labourers and daily wagers, it is unfortunate that there has been no mention of a regularisation policy for the cooks in the school education department.”We are requesting the government to increase our salaries up to Rs 20,000 and regularise our services. We have already spent more than twenty years in the school education department. There are a lot of people who have crossed the age limit, but they are still receiving this peanut of wages from the last 30 years in the school education department,” he added.They appealed to the Minister of Education Sakina Itoo, and the Director of School Education Kashmir to address this issue and increase their wages to Rs 20,000.