Midday meal workers ransacked a vehicle which was carrying midday meal for school children at Srikona, on the outskirts of Silchar on Monday.
Assam government has given the task of providing midday meal among school children to NGO Akriti in Cachar district with effect from November 1.
But the NGO has faced the brunt of irate midday meal workers in the region.
On Monday when a vehicle carrying food for the school kids, doled out from Srikona near ITI on the outskirts of Silchar, was stopped by the midday meal workers.
“Later, after preliminary checks, the midday meal workers ransacked all the items available in the vehicle,” said sources.
Also read: Assam: Midday meal workers stage protest in Silchar
Supported by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), the midday meal workers have been opposing the government’s move to rope in an NGO to carry out the task instead of regularizing their jobs.
Besides the mid-day meal workers’ protest, the school teachers and school committees have also started complaining about the quality of the meal being provided by the NGO and the hygiene they maintain.
Also read: Assam: NGO ‘fails’ to meet midday meal demand in Lakhimpur
Suparna Das, a midday meal worker, speaking to Northeast Now, said, “We have visited the place where their (NGO’s) meal is cooked. No importance has been given to hygiene there.”
“Today, we stopped the (NGO’s) vehicle and checked the food which was not at all proper for serving among the small kids of schools,” added Das.
“The parents don’t want their kids to have neither such food nor the students want to eat what is being provided by this NGO,” asserted Das.
The midday meal workers threatened that they would never allow the NGO to distribute poor quality meal among the students.
“If the NGO continues to distribute such poor quality food among the small school kids, we will stop their vehicle every day,” the midday meal workers threatened in unison.