The AP IKP Animators' Employees Sangham, affiliated to CITU, has called upon IKP Animators to make the March 27 ‘Chalo Assembly' programme a success. The sangham is protesting against delay in the implementation of the promises made by the government to recognise them as VOA s and pay them Rs.3,000 as wages.
Honorary president of the sangham's district unit M. Suryanarayana and district secretary T. Rama Suseela said that 36,000 animators were working all over the State for the past 12 years, but they were being neglected by the government which was not paying any wages to them.
They said the animators were agitating for the last four years seeking job security and payment of minimum wages. At the animators' State conference on June 12, 2010, the Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) CEO had announced that animators would be paid minimum wages as in the case of the beneficiaries of Employment Guarantee Scheme.
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On June 20, 2011, Minister for IKP Sunita Lakshma Reddy said the animators would recognised as VOA s and paid Rs.3,000 as wages. She had announced that a circular would be issued in a month for this purpose, but the same was not done to this day.
They demanded immediate payment of wages to the animators.