Midday meal workers have taken objection to handing over the task of preparing and distributing midday meals to children in 75 schools across Mysuru district to Akshaya Patra Foundation of ISKCON.
The workers questioned the propriety of assigning the job to the NGO when they (workers) were doing it successfully without any problems for several years now. Midday meal workers, led by H.K. Ramachandrappa, State president of the Karnataka State Midday Meal Workers’ Federation affiliated to the AITUC, took out a procession in the city here Saturday, and staged a demonstration in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office.
Addressing the protesters, Mr. Ramachandrappa alleged that the officials concerned, including the Chief Executive Officer of the zilla panchayat, Block Education Officers, and headmasters of some schools had held a meeting on April 11, and decided ‘to assign the job of preparing and distributing mid-day meals to over 75 schools in Mysuru district (including 46 schools of Mysuru city and 29 schools in Mysuru taluk) to Akshaya Patra Foundation of ISKCON. He questioned as to what had prompted the CEO and other officials to assign the task to the NGO all of a sudden.
Mr. Ramachandrappa said that hundreds of midday meal workers would be deprived of jobs if the NGO were to be given the contract of serving midday meals to children in 75 government schools. According to the guidelines of the State government, meals prepared fresh should be served hot to students, but if an NGO is given charge, then it will be prepared early in the morning and then served in the afternoon.
He said that keeping in mind the interests of the schoolchildren and the mid-day meal workers, the decision to hand over charge of serving midday meals to children to an NGO should be given up, and status quo should be maintained.Office-bearers of the Mysuru District Midday Meal Workers’ Association M. Vasantha, Y. Mahadevamma, Manjula, Bhavani, Asha, Mamatha, and Padma were among others present.
‘If Akshaya Patra Foundation is given the contract, many midday meal workers will lose their jobs’
