Assam Education Minister's House Gheraoed by Laid-Off Mid-Day Meal Employees

Guwahati, November 11, 2019:

Assam mid-day meal cooks who lost their jobs after the duty of providing meals to students was shifted to NGOs have launched a massive protest in front of Education Minister Siddhartha Bhattacharya's residence in Guwahati.

"We will give our blood, but we won't give the mid-day meals to NGOs", shouted the protesters, demanding the Education Minister to bring back the system of cooking meals within the school premises itself.

The protesters surrounded Bhattacharya's residence in GS Road early in the morning and thousands of disgruntled former employees joined the mass protest. The flow of traffic was interrupted and hundreds of vehicles were left stranded on the road amid the teeming masses of protesters. The protesters squatted on the roads and raised cries to the high heavens.

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Heart-breaking scenes unfolded in front of the Education Minister's residence as many of the cooks broke down in tears and complained that they have lost their source of livelihoods. The protesters are demanding the Government to return their jobs.

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It may be mentioned here that Assam has seen sustained protests from the former mid-day meal employees, after the Government move to shift the responsibility to NGOs. Over 1.6 lakh employees of the mid-day meal scheme lost their jobs after the Government's move. Moreover, they have been crying foul after blacklisted NGOs, such as Ghanshyam, were offered the contracts. In recent times, children have also been falling sick after eating the food cooked by the NGOs.

Now, all eyes are on the Assam Government to see what the next move will be: whether the mid-day meal workers will get their jobs back, or whether the protests will continue like this. For now, the two sides seem to have reached an impasse.

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