Assam govt will pay midday meal workers Rs 500: Minister

The Assam government will give Rs 500 to the midday meal workers in addition to their monthly salary and this will be effective from April one this year, Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Tuesday.

The amount will be deposited in the accounts of the workers before the Durga Puja and the state government will incur an expenditure of Rs 59.49 crore annually, the minister said at a press conference here.

The Centre pays Rs 1,000 to the midday meal workers and "to this the state government will add Rs 500", he said.

"The amount will be deposited before the Puja and the total amount to be disbursed from April to October will be Rs 34.20 crore", Sarma said.

The state has 1,18,998 midday meal workers.

Meanwhile, the state cabinet has also decided to provide regular pay-scale to 1,576 school teachers who were appointed between 1991 and 2001 and were getting salary intermittently since 2007 and had done their training also, the minister said.

The appointment of teachers will become effective from November one this year, he added.

The state government will also appoint 2,960 more teachers who were getting their salary but are not trained as tutors with a fixed salary, the minister said.

These two steps taken by the state government will resolve the problems of more than 4,000 teachers, Sarma added.