VIJAYAWADA: Former chief minister and YSRCP president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has criticised the coalition government for jeopardising the livelihoods of nearly 85,000 women engaged in cooking mid-day meals in government schools.
Taking to X platform on Saturday, he stated that the government is using the proposed ‘Smart Kitchens’ initiative as a pretext to benefit its own supporters while pushing thousands of women workers, many of whom have served for over two decades, into uncertainty and unemployment.
Jagan pointed out that the government has also failed to pay these workers their salaries for the past two months, further worsening their financial hardship. He recalled that when the YSRCP assumed office, the honorarium for mid-day meal workers was increased from Rs 1,000 to Rs 3,000 per month, and stated that the present government had promised to do even more for them before the elections.
Instead, he said, it is now attempting to remove them under the guise of the Smart Kitchens policy, leaving thousands of women without a livelihood. Jagan reaffirmed that the YSRCP will stand firmly with the mid-day meal workers and fight on their behalf.
He demanded the immediate release of the two months’ pending wages and urged the government to honour its election promise.