Mangaluru : Members of the Karnataka Rajya Akshara Dasoha Naukarara Sangha district unit staged a protest on Tuesday, urging the state government to meet their demands, including the implementation of minimum wages for mid-day meal workers.

The members protested in front of the Zilla Panchayat office in the city.

The protesters said that the Centre has not hiked the honorarium for the mid-day meal workers for the 10 years. Instead, it has recommended to reduce the grant for the mid-day meal scheme, they complained.

They have also put across a series of demands, including mainly fixing the minimum monthly wages for the workers. “The scheme must not be handed over to private organisations under any circumstance. The government must carry on to implement the scheme. The mid-day meal workers should be considered as D-Group employees in the schools. As work on the kitchen garden can be taken up under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in the available land in the schools, the work must be entrusted to mid-day meal workers,” said the protesters.

They also said that the mid-day meal scheme should be extended till class 12. “A minimum of two cooks should be appointed to each school. The maternity benefit should be extended to the mid-day meal workers. Universal health cards should be distributed to all the mid-day meal workers,” added the protesters.