No mid-day meal to lakhs of students in Telangana as workers strike

Hyderabad: The ongoing strike by over 54,000 mid-day meal (MDM) workers seeking fulfillment of their demands immediately, continues to affect mid-day meal supply to lakhs of school students in Telangana. The strike enters its third day on Wednesday.

A senior official of the education department said the district education officers (DEO) were asked to make alternate arrangements to ensure food supply to the students is not affected and hoped that the strike would end in a day or two. MDM workers have been demanding the state government to clear the pending bills and also implement the hike in remuneration immediately, among other demands.

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The state government in February this year issued an order increasing the honorarium amount to Rs 3,000 from the existing Rs 1,000. However the MDL workers allege that they are yet to get the enhanced payment.

"There are 23 lakh students studying in government, zilla parishad and aided schools and out of which about 75-80 per cent consume mid-day meals in schools. The DEOs have been asked to make alternate arrangements to see that the students are fed. Arrangements could not be made at some places due to local reasons," the official said.

He said there are 27,000 schools in the state which serve Mid-Day Meal. AITUC Telangana Secretary T Sammaiah said the workers union called for "Chalo Hyderabad" tomorrow as part of the protest. "We are going to submit a memorandum to the state government and the future course of action will depend on the government reaction," Sammaiah said.