Mid-day meal workers in the State have decided to stop preparing meals from December 5 if the government does not fulfil their demand for increase in honorarium to Rs. 3,000. Several workers from 22 districts staged a protest on the road opposite Freedom Park here on Monday. They raised slogans and urged the government to pay attention to their plight.
Cooks and head cooks under the programme are paid Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 1,100, respectively, every month. They get an additional Rs. 100 every month for providing milk to schoolchildren thrice a week under the Ksheera Bhagya scheme.
S. Varalakshmi, State president of the Karnataka Rajya Akshara Dasoha Naukarara Sangha, said that the workers would camp in the night and would launch an indefinite strike till the government raised their salaries.