Councilors did not accept financial incentives to promote birth rates, the Municipality will subsidize the children’s milk kitchen : Vestnik Zname

25/04/2024 15:35

PAZARDJIK. A few minutes ago, the councilors rejected the proposal of the councilor Georgi Koprishchenov from “Novote Vreme” to adopt an Ordinance on the granting of financial assistance for the promotion of birth and child rearing in the territory of Pazardzhik Municipality. It provides for a point system of three tranches between BGN 600 and BGN 4,000 for the birth of a child after June 1, 2024 (today he corrected the date – the regulation will enter into force on January 1, 2025), but the project met with a lot of criticism – and because the wrong statistics, and because of the criteria by which the points of the applicants for funding are formed. 16 councilors voted “for”, “against” – 14, and 19 abstained.

Mayor Petar Kulenski opposed the proposal with the argument that the drop in birth rates in the three maternity wards of Pazardzhik (MBAL-Pazardzhik, MBAL “Hygia” and MBAL “Zdrave”) from 2018 to 2024 is not 24%, but by 8% (in the project the figures are 1263 babies in 2018 compared to 960 babies in 2023). “Where will the money come from? There is no way to duplicate the activities of the state – we must concentrate on improving the conditions in which parents and children live,” Kulenski said. He added that the administration is already working on the preparation of a regulation with which the food in the Children’s Milk Kitchen will be topped up, so that here too parents can pay BGN 1.50 for the first, second and third, instead of BGN 5-6 , as young mothers complained during his meetings with the citizens.

The councilor from PP-DB Dr. Elisaveta Gencheva stated that the proposal is insufficiently substantiated, there are gross errors in the figures and there are discriminatory texts. “You associate birth with additional material stimulation, and I thought that children are born not with money, but with love. And can you formulate a definition of responsible and irresponsible parenting – there is no way for us to judge and define this. We need to start with improving living conditions,” said Dr. Gencheva. According to the councilor from “BSP for Bulgaria” Liliana Murhova-Prisadnikova, the draft regulation will deprive single parents of funds altogether, and Trendafil Velichkov from “Our City” stated that “the text is worthless, but the intentions are wonderful.” And he proposed to create a working group to solve the demographic problem in the municipality, which has not been a national problem since yesterday. Todor Popov from “Novoto vreme” commented that everyone is looking in the same direction with good intentions and a way must be found to help young families in line with the promotion of fertility.

(Zn)