The State government should immediately release the salary arrears due to the staff working in Amma Unavagams, said AIADMK MLA R. B. Udayakumar here on Thursday.
In a letter written to the Collector, he said that there were 12 Amma Unavagams in Madurai. The staff, all women, who were working from 5 a.m. till 5 p.m., have complained that they were not paid salaries since June.
The women, who had formed self-help groups, worked with dedication and served the needy and the poorest of the poor with quality food daily. Such yeomen services should be appreciated by the government and the administrators. There should not be any politics behind such projects, which were launched purely with a welfare objective.
The late AIADMK leader and Chief Minister Jayalalithaa launched the Amma Unavagams on February 2013 across the State and there were 700 eateries functioning since then. Every day, a little over a million people benefited through them.
The Amma Unavagams came in handy during the COVID-19 pandemic as private restaurants were ordered to be closed during the lockdowns. Thousands of commoners and working class people relied on Amma Unavagams, he said and added that the government should only spread the wings of this concept and not give an impression that it attempted to demoralise the establishment for political reasons.
On seeing its success, administrators from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Odisha visited Tamil Nadu and saw for themselves the functioning of the Amma Unavagams, Mr. Udayakumar pointed out and appealed to the State government to ensure that the women staff were paid their salaries immediately in the larger public interest.
