Talks fail, noon meal workers to continue stir

Chennai

The much anticipated talks held between the noon meal workers and the Minister of Social Welfare, V Saroja, on Tuesday, to end the ongoing indefinite strike failed as the noon meal workers walked out dejected from the meeting.

“The talks were just an eyewash. Minister did not agree to any of our demands and the talks were a failure,” said Noorjahan, General Secretary, Tamil Nadu Nutritious Noon Meal Employees Association (TNNMEA), at the Secretariat, where the talks were held.

Noon meal workers commenced their indefinite strike, over their five demands on Monday and stopped cooking food for the students. Talks were held at Secretariat between the representatives of TNNMEA and Saroja in the presence of Manivasan, Secretary, Social Welfare Department to end their strike.

However, the noon meal workers were not satisfied at the outcome of the talks and continued their strike. “Minister told us that there are no funds with the state government and so our demands cannot be met,” added Noorjahan.

Referring to the minister’s claim that the workers’ demands had not reached Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and so they could not take any decision immediately, she said it was not true.

“In the last two months, they staged several protests to invite the attention of Palaniswami and even in a recent function, in Pollachi, women from TNNMEA submitted memorandum to Palaniswami about their demands, but no action was taken.”

To condemn the state government for their insensitiveness on their demands, they will stage protest by wearing black dress on Wednesday, said Noorjahan.

Permanent job status with timescale pay, salary on par with junior assistants, pension of Rs 7,800 per month and to hike gratuity to Rs 5 lakh were their demands.

Similar protests were held in Thiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts where dozens of noon meal workers abstained from work through the day.