Cooks in government schools demand fair wages

Kupwara, Jan 10: The cooks working in government schools under various schemes today held a peaceful protest at Chinar Park Handwara, in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district with an aim to highlight their grievances regarding non-payment of salaries as per the Minimum Wages Act.

The protesters said that they were working at par with the regular employees from several decades but every government has been discriminatory towards them in fulfilling their demands.

"We happen to be the backbone of government schools providing essential service to the students. Least government can do to provide us wages as per Minimum Wages Act," said a protestor.

"I am working in the department for last one decade hoping that my services would be made permanent but nothing like that happened. We are not supposed to cook midway meals only but our services are being utilized in different chores," said another female protestor.

"We have been working on meager wages hoping that sooner or later government would permanent us but nothing concrete has been done in this regard and we are left high and dry," she added.

Employees appealed Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and other concerned higher officials to enhance their wages and make their services permanent so that their long pending demands are fulfilled and their hardships are lessoned.