Noon meal staff suspend stir till Deepavali

“Social Welfare Department officials assured that though not all their demands would be met at least the demands of increasing the food subsidy to Rs 5 per student and travel charges for transporting meals to the neighbouring noon meal centre are assured. We believe the words of the officials and withdrew our protests,” said Noorjahan, secretary, Tamil Nadu Nutritious Noon Meal Employees Association (TNNMEA), to DT Next.

Noon meal workers commenced their indefinite strike from Monday and unlike their previous protests they stopped cooking for students which made the department officials to go for talks with the protesters. Though no solution was attained in the first round of talks the second round of talks were held on Friday in which Secretary of Social Welfare Department, Manivasan assured them that government has taken their issues seriously.

“Manivasan told us that Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami discussed about our demands last night and sought all possible ways to fulfil the demands. However, no definite timeframe was given to implement our demands,” said Noorjahan.

She also said that after Deepavali the members of TNNMEA will hold a meeting and will decide on the future course of their protest.

With host of demands including job permanency, timescale pay, increase in pension from Rs 2,000 to Rs 7,800 per month, increase in gratuity from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh for noon meal organisers and from Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 lakh for noon meal assistants, the noon meal workers commenced their indefinite strike.