Mid-Day Meal Block Managers demand equal treatment with Samagra staff
Fazilka, September 12, 2025: Assistant Block Managers (ABMs) working under the Mid-Day Meal Society have once again raised concerns over being side-lined despite serving in block offices for the past 16 years on very modest salaries. They allege that, despite repeated directions from the Cabinet Sub-Committee to regularize them along with Samagra Shiksha staff, the department has consistently ignored their demands.
Sharing details, Rajesh Watts, senior leader of the ABM Union Punjab, Fazilka, said that since 2009, successive governments and the Education Department have continued to discriminate against Mid-Day Meal ABMs. In 2014, when Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan Society employees received grade pay and a significant salary hike, Mid-Day Meal staff were excluded by being placed under a separate society.
He pointed out that in December 2024, the department secured Finance Department approval to increase the salaries of one state-level and 15 district-level accountants of the Mid-Day Meal Society, bringing them at par with Samagra accountants, along with arrears from April 2023. However, no such benefit was extended to Mid-Day Meal ABMs. In protest, employees under the banner of the Samagra Shiksha/Mid-Day Meal Employees Union, Punjab, staged a pen-down strike from December 4, 2024, to January 14, 2025. Under pressure, the department later approved a nominal increase of ₹5,000 per month for ABMs from April 1, 2024.
Watts added that while the department deducted the salaries of all employees during the strike, it released the pending dues of Samagra staff in August 2025 but withheld the salaries of Mid-Day Meal ABMs for the same period.
He further alleged that the government recently created posts through the Finance Department and passed a Cabinet resolution for the regularization of Samagra employees but excluded 104 Mid-Day Meal staff, despite Finance Department approval in both 2019 and July 2025 covering them as well.
Watts stressed that Mid-Day Meal employees must be regularized immediately in line with the Finance Department’s approval. Otherwise, the union will be compelled to intensify its struggle and, if needed, take the matter to court.