Gadchiroli Dec. 25 (District Correspondent) The women cooks working under Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Amrut Aahar Yojna took staged demonstrations in front of the Zilla Parishad here to press for the demands of raising their honorarium to Rs. 10,000 per month and reducing the working hours.
A large number of cooks from different parts of the district assembled in front of the Zilla Parishad and shouted slogans in support of their demands. They warned to intensify the agitation if their demands are not fulfilled. Chief of the Cooks Union Krushna Chaudhari led the agitation.
Since the women cooks were selected from 2016, they are given a negligible honorarium of Rs. 1000 per month, means Rs. 33 per day in which they can not meet the family expenses. Due to ever rising inflation, this honorarium is becoming quite insufficient.
The work of cooking takes five to six hours to prepare the food every day. The honorarium of these cooks should be increased to at least Rs 10,000, they demanded.
Although the cooks who have been serving for the last nine years have been staging continuous agitations but the administration is ignoring them. To attract the attention of the government, protest demonstrations were staged to demand increase in the honorarium.
There are about 6,000 women cooks in the entire district. They are always assured of an increase in honorarium but so far, no concrete measures have been taken and the government and administration have not issued a GR in this regard.
We are being exploited and grave injustice is being done with us. The government should take immediate decisions and fulfil our demands otherwise we will be forced to continue protests until our demands are met, they warned. The government and administration should pay serious attention to this and increase our demand.
Mr. Gautam Meshram of the Constitution Foundation and Tularam Raut of the Bouddha Mahasabha also visited the agitation and extended their support. Amrit Aahar Anganwadi Cooks Association leaders Deepali Bavanthade, Sangita Randive, Sadhya Lonbaile, Seema Gotha, Sushila Kerami, Sunita Narote, Aswina Gurunule, Vaishali Madavi, Anju Gedam, Chhabhutai Dadgaye, Supriya Puram, Sharda Barde, Lakshi Kumoti, Vaishali Narote, Rasika Narote, Sarita Gawle and hundreds of cooks participated in the agitation.
A memorandum of demands was then submitted to Mr. Ravindra Bhuyar, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, ZP, Gadchiroli.
