Over 1,000 school midday meal cooks on Saturday squatted on four key points of the capital from 8am to 11.30am demanding a hike in salary, throwing morning traffic completely off-kilter.

Thousands of commuters, mainly office-goers, schoolchildren and their parents, were held up as belligerent midday meal cooks, under the banner of Jharkhand Pradesh Vidyalaya Rasoiya, Sanyojika Adhyaksh Sangh, blocked Lowadih-Kantatoli Road near Durga Soren Chowk, Kishori Yadav Chowk near Ratu Road, Booty More and Birsa Chowk (Doranda).

Nearly a lakh Jharkhand midday meal cooks are angry ever since October 10 when police lathi-charged their representatives near CM Raghubar Das’s Kanke Road residence, who were demanding Rs 350 pay per day or Grade IV jobs instead of the Rs 42 per day that they get currently. On Saturday, some 400 each blocked Lowadih-Kantatoli Road and Kishori Yadav Chowk, some 200 each squatted on Booty More and Birsa Chowk.

But, commuters bore the brunt. “I was going to bring my daughter home from Assisi High School but could not proceed,” said Natasha Singh, a homemaker in Kantatoli. “Desperate, I even pleaded with agitators to allow me to go to my child, who’s only in Class IV. They did not relent. Finally, I requested another parent to bring my child till Durga Soren Chowk. It was frustrating and scary.”

Office-goers also got delayed or missed appointments.

“I had an important meeting at office at 11am. But I was stuck at the Kishori Yadav Chowk blockade and took a detour of nearly 3km via lanes to reach Ranchi Main Road. I reached my Lalpur office well past 11.30pm. Embarrassing,” grimaced Abhishek Kumar, an IT executive with an MNC.

Ranchi traffic SP Sanjay Singh admitted they had a difficult time as agitators strategically blocked important traffic intersections. “The administration should ensure prompt action is taken to prevent blockades for long hours,” he said.

Asked why squatters were not cleared soon, Ranchi SDO Garima Singh said they had given permission for the protest near Zakir Hussain Park near Morabadi. “They flouted the permission and blocked roads. We can’t use too much pressure to evict squatters in such cases, but we did persuade them to leave,” she said.

Asked, Rasoiya Sangh president Ajeet Prajapati said he was aware that people were inconvenienced but claimed they had no choice. “We were not allowed to meet CM earlier this week and instead were lathi-charged. We were told our demands would be discussed with midday meal director Shailesh Kumar Chourasia on Saturday but the meeting proved futile as the director said increasing pay was a policy decision the government has to take,” he said.

Prajapati said they would try to meet the CM on October 22. “If nothing happens, midday meal workers would go on an indefinite strike, paralysing the daily lunch in schools.”