Manipur Mid-Day Meal workers warm cease work strike

Mid-Day Meal workers demand for release of pending honorarium

The honorarium for the mid-day meal workers has not been distributed since October 2020 and they warm Government of Manipur to resume cease work strike as they have been launching various form of agitations from time to time, condemning such irresponsible acts of the state government but no action were taken up.

Mid-Day Meal Workers’ Union Manipur (MDMWUM) on Saturday announced that it will resume its cease work strike from Monday onwards in a press conference at Manipur Press Club. President of MDMWUM Y Indrani Devi said that the honorarium for the mid-day meal workers has not been distributed since October 2020 and they even carried out a cease work strike a few months ago.

They suspended it as the state government assured them that their honorarium will be released in July, however the state government has kept mum on the issue till date. Therefore, they have decided to resume their cease work strike from Monday, she said.

Indrani said that through their own investigation, they have found out that the Central government had released funds for mid-day meal twice to the tune of Rs 15 crore followed by another Rs 10 crore. However, the state government has not disbursed them till date and this has been highly unfortunate, she added.

The amount of honorarium is just Rs 1,000 and is given only for 10 months in a year, she said. Most of the individuals working as cooks for the mid-day scheme are from economically weak background, she mentioned.

Considering the significance of the mid-day meal scheme, many states have increased the honorarium for the cooks of this scheme by earmarking a state share. But in the state of Manipur, they even failed to disburse the amount sanctioned by the Central government, she said.