By covering their heads with sarees and wailing, members of the Tamil Nadu Noon Meal Workers Association, Udhagamandalam chapter, staged a novel protest in front of the panchayat union office here on Monday.
It was to focus attention on their demands which included payment of salaries on a time-scale basis and inclusion in the list of government employees.
Promotion
They also wanted the expenditure per beneficiary of the noon meal scheme to be raised from 44 paise to one rupee.
Noon meal organisers should be promoted and posted in Social Welfare and other departments.
Hill allowance and Winter allowance should be provided to noon meal scheme employees working in hill areas. Special subsidy should be provided for boiling eggs, potato etc, they said.
The demonstration by the employees was led by the president of the Ooty chapter, K.K. Shankaran.
