Jammu Feb 13 (KNS): Democratic Progressive Azad Party on Monday urged the Jammu and Kashmir government to increase the salary of Anganwadi workers and treat them at par with other co-employees in the rest of the country. General Secretary R.S.Chib, Provincial President Jugal Kishore, Chief Spokesperson Salman Nizami, Distt President Ashwani Khajuria, Brij Mohan Sharma General Secretary Provincial, State Secretary Priti Khajuria, Sanjeev Khajuria, Anoop Khajuria today met the protesting employees in Udhampur who have been urging government to regularize their jobs and increase their salaries.

“It is unfortunate that on one side the government is claiming to integrate Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of the country socioeconomically but on the other hand our Anganwadi workers who work and give best of their services to the government are paid peanuts,” said RS Chib. He said that the anganwadi employees are paid somewhere 12000 to 14000 stipend every month in other states but in Jammu and Kashmir the same employee working in harsh weather conditions are being paid meagre Rs 4500 per month.

He said that the government shall look into the demands of these workers and at least pay Rs 5 lakh as retirement benefit. “What they are paid is a meagre sum that can’t even fetch them a basic living. They deserve benefits like other co-employees of Delhi, Punjab and other states,”  said Chib.(KNS)