Today, on January 29, at a meeting of the Saratov Regional Duma, Communist Party deputy Nikolai Bondarenko suggested that an increase in the compensation for school breakfasts for preferential categories of children from 10 to 20 rubles this year would increase the welfare of the family of the deputy chairman of the regional Duma, United Russia Olga Bolyakina.
Speaking with a report on the bill, the Minister of Education of the region Irina Sedova reported that the cost of school breakfasts ranges from 20 to 53 rubles, the average cost of breakfast is 30 rubles. Now the beneficiaries will be compensated for most of the cost of school meals.
“We are counting the days and hours until the moment when all children will eat for free. I would like to retell my conversation with school principals about children whose parents cannot pay the full cost of breakfast, and the children do not eat meat and potatoes, but one potato. The directors tell me: do not worry, the children do not look into each other's mouths, we are putting them away! This formulation of the question is abnormal. Please pay attention,”said Stanislav Denisenko, a LDPR deputy.
“I will take control of this, but I want to remind that primary school students receive free milk, and children who are in the extended meals group also have preferential meals,” Sedova said.
“We will not achieve the effect we are expecting, they will just start stealing more. Are you considering a money control mechanism that will result in high-quality nutrition for our children? - asked the non-party deputy Ivan Cheprasov.
“The provision of the privileged category is spelled out in the legislation. And what you said about business … I think it is on the conscience of each of us, because these are children, this is our future,”the minister replied.
Cheprasov's question was supported by Bondarenko and said that the deputy chairman of the regional Duma Olga Bolyakina, who works on a permanent basis in the Duma, previously owned a business providing schoolchildren with breakfasts, and now "the baton has been intercepted by her husband and son."
“Will your and your family's incomes be increased? This is a new feeder that can be mastered,”Bondarenko said.
He recalled the case when the firm of Bolyakina's relatives was appointed the only supplier of school meals without holding auctions.
“It's called a cartel, it's called collusion. I don’t understand why the law enforcement agencies haven’t responded yet?” the communist exclaimed.
The first deputy chairman of the regional Duma, Alexei Antonov, saw this as a violation of the rules and called on "to discuss the issue, not a colleague."
