Chennai, February 7: Dr. Ambumani Ramadas, leader of the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), has called on the Tamil Nadu government to engage in immediate discussions with protesting mid-day meal and anganwadi workers. He urged the government to fulfill their long-standing demands, including retirement benefits and improved salaries.
In a statement, Ambumani highlighted that thousands of mid-day meal staff, cooks, and assistants have been protesting across the state for nearly five days, pressuring the government for better working conditions, increased pension benefits, and higher gratuity payments.
Criticizing the government’s approach to the movement, he accused officials of attempting to detain protesters instead of initiating dialogue. “It is reprehensible to suppress their voices through detention rather than engaging in conversation,” he stated, emphasizing that these workers are the backbone of Tamil Nadu’s widely praised mid-day meal scheme, which supports millions of schoolchildren daily.
The PMK leader stressed that most mid-day meal workers have been employed as part-time staff for years, receiving low wages and insufficient social security. He demanded that they be made permanent employees and provided regular time-scale salaries like other government workers.
According to him, the current salary structure does not reflect the scale of their responsibilities. Ambumani reminded that during the last assembly session, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin announced several welfare measures, including raising the monthly pension for retired mid-day meal workers from ₹2,000 to ₹3,400 and increasing retirement benefits from ₹1 lakh to ₹2 lakh.
However, he noted that workers are still struggling to make ends meet and are now demanding an increase in the monthly pension to ₹6,500.
The ongoing deadlock between the government and employees has started to affect the functioning of the Mid-Day Meal Scheme. Ambumani reported that approximately 43,000 mid-day meal centers in Tamil Nadu have been disrupted due to the protests, potentially impacting thousands of students who rely on this program for their daily nutrition.
Describing the situation as “avoidable,” he urged the state government to initiate talks with employee representatives immediately and resolve their grievances through constructive dialogue. He asserted that ensuring fair wages and dignified retirement benefits would not only support the workers but also strengthen the state’s key welfare program.