TAXILA: Scores of monitoring and evaluation assistants (MEAs) working in the Chief Minister`s Monitoring Force (CMMF)onSundayannounced to go on a strike demanding an increase in salaries and regularisation oftheir services.

The assistants, under the leadership of their provincial president Rana Ashfaq Ahmad, on Sunday said after their 12-yearservice in the education department they had neither been given an increase in salaries nor their services were being regularised.

They said the CMMF was established in 2004 during the tenure of the then chief minister Punjab, Chaudhry Pervez Elahi. To run the force, almost 900 MEAs were appointed on contractual basis to monitor the education department.

They said that last year the Lahore High Court had also given a verdict in favour of the assistants but the government was yet to implement the verdict.

They said they would go on a strike till a notification was issued by the government for theincreasein theirsalaries as per the verdict of the LHC. Correspondent