MDM workers decry government apathy

Bhubaneswar: Hundreds of midday meal (MDM) workers and helpers from different parts of the state staged a demonstration in front of Midday Meal Programme office here to press for their longstanding demand.

Later, the agitators submitted a memorandum to school and mass education minister Badri Narayan Patra demanding immediate payment of honorarium pending since July this year.

“Even though nearly 1,26,000 MDM workers and helpers are being paid mere Rs 33.33 a day, the state government has been neglecting us since long. We have decided to stand united and fight for our rights and intensify agitation, if our demand is not heeded to at the earliest”, said Odisha Mid-Day Meal Workers and Helpers’ Union general secretary Radharaman Sarangi.