Delay by bank forces Udupi midday meal workers to go without salary

UDUPI: Even though the Union government introduced the direct benefit transfer (DBT) of the monthly honorarium of Akshara Dasoha (midday meal) employees, because of mismatch of credentials in the bank account details, hundreds of employees in Udupi district have not received their honorarium from the past five months.  

Compounding the problems of midday meal employees (cooks get Rs 3,700 per month and helpers Rs 3,600 per month), the bank has been delaying to rectify the mismatch of the credentials in the bank passbook details. Take the example of Saku, a head cook at Government Lower Primary School, Jannal, Byndoor taluk. Despite submitting her credentials to the bank, the error was not rectified and hence no honorarium was credited to her bank account. Like her, more than 40 cooks and helpers have not received their dues for the same reason since the five months in Byndoor taluk alone.

There are many more whose credentials are yet to be corrected at the bank though TNIE could not independently verify the status of each case. However, some cooks and their helpers said the head teachers in their respective schools have rectified the credentials in the SATS portal so it is mainly the banks that are causing the delay.

The error to be rectified at the bank is not a big task. In most cases, which TNIE verified, the name of the an employee’s husband was given in the Aadhaar credentials, while in the bank account details, the name of his/her father was entered in the box meant for mentioning their custodial caretakers.

Arun Kumar Shetty, in-charge of midday meal scheme for Kundapur taluk, told TNIE that just a week ago, there were about 200 cooks and helpers whose credential error rectification was pending at the bank. However, this has come down to 40 as on Thursday. ‘’We hope the remaining will get their credentials completed in two days and all the staff will get their honorarium and the arrears at one go,’’ he said.

Singari Poojarthi, president of midday meal employees’ association, Kundapur-Byndoor, told TNIE that many of the employees operated by borrowing loans from relatives and friends. P M Pinjar, lead district manager, Lead Bank, Udupi, told TNIE that he has already sent a message to all bank managers to speed up the task and will verify the progress.