May 10: Cooks of midday meals in government schools have appealed to Dispur not to go ahead with its decision to include more institutions within the ambit of the Akshaya Patra Foundation, an NGO.

The foundation prepares and supplies the meals to 60 schools in Jalukbari for a certain fee. It has its office at Amingaon.

The Bangalore-based foundation started its midday-meal programme in June 2000 by preparing food for 1,500 children in five schools. At that time there was no state-run school meal programme in Karnataka. Now, the foundation reaches out to 1.3 million children everyday across the country.

Talking to reporters, the cooks under the banner of Sadou Asom Madhyahna Bhojan Karmachari Union, said the state government was gradually expanding the ambit of the foundation from Jalukbari constituency to other areas of Kamrup (rural), and, gradually it would cover the other districts.

“If other schools are also brought within the ambit of the foundation, cooks working in those schools will lose their jobs as the meals would be supplied by the foundation. These cooks are all women and from poor families, and the small amount of money they get for their service in schools is a great support for them,” said Bibekananda Adhikari, executive president of the union.

The organisation alleged that the state government was helping the NGO to earn profits by depriving the poor cooks. They appealed to the state government to reconsider its decision on “humanitarian grounds”.

At present, the foundation’s cooks prepare midday meals in their Amingaon centre and ferry them to government schools in special vehicles so that the teachers can concentrate on teaching.

The schools out of the ambit of the foundation have to arrange for the midday meal and sometimes even teachers have to lend a helping hand. Teachers have complained several times that the midday-meal scheme has an adverse impact on the teaching process.

The members of the union have will organise a five-day dharna in front of the directorate of elementary education everyday from May 15 to 19 demanding the state government not to take any decision for which the poor cooks would lose their jobs.

“We have informed the state government about our demands several times. But, there have not been any response for which we have decided to hit the streets,” said Adhikari.

He also protested employing new cooks by the school management committees by removing those who have been working for several years. They said new appointments were done after Dispur issued a circular in August last year.