Velugu Village Organisation Assistants demand hike in salary

Vijayawada: Thousands of AP Velugu Village Organisation Assistants and AP Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Urban Areas (MEPMA) RP employees from across the state staged a dharna at the Dharna Chowk here on Monday demanding that the government increase their salaries to Rs 5,000.

In this regard, a rally was organised from Vijayawada Railway Station to Dharna Chowk. Addressing the gathering, PDF MLC Boddu Nageswara Rao criticised the government for launching various schemes for women without doing justice to VOAs and RPs.

He said the VOAs and resource persons were striving to eradicate poverty and were facing starvation. He demanded that the government pay Rs 5,000 salary without discrimination towards them and said if the government does not address their fair demands, they would press their demands during the Assembly session.

CITU state general secretary K Dhanalakshmi lashed out at the government for ignoring their long-pending demands of VOAs and MEPMA RPs. She said that the government was utilising the services of the VOAs to gather women for public meetings organised by the government but not recognising their services.

She said that VOAs play a keyrole in extending helping hand to self-help groups. She warned that they would intensify their protest if the government ignores their demands. She said that for the last four years they have been facing hardship and extended their service to about 90 lakh SHGs, she added.

She said that their demands were fair and wanted the government to treat them as humans. She demanded the government to immediately act on their demands and solve their problems by increasing their salary. CITU state vice-president V Umamaheswara Rao, secretary K Umamaheswara Rao, VOA leaders S Prabhu Das, K Lakshmi, Murali, Roopa, Reddappa and Nirmaladevi were present.