The governor was offered to pay for the fare – Picture of the day – Kommersant

All factions of the parliament of the Ulyanovsk region opposed the decisions of the authorities of Ulyanovsk and Dimitrovgrad on the abolition of free travel for schoolchildren from September 1. Municipalities explained this by the lack of budgetary funds. With a request to return the benefits, the deputies decided to turn to Governor Alexei Russkikh (KPRF). According to parliamentarians, the problem has turned from a social into a political one: it turns out that the former United Russia governor introduced benefits, and the new communist head removes them. The expert sees this as a “serious flaw” in the work of the political bloc of the regional administration.

The question of the abolition of free travel on public transport for schoolchildren in Ulyanovsk and Dimitrovgrad was discussed on August 31 at a joint meeting of the social and transport committees of the regional legislature. As the head of the transport committee Dmitry Grachev (LDPR) said at the opening of the meeting, “this information caused a wide resonance”, “signals of discontent began to come in social networks, in deputy receptions.”

A week and a half ago, this issue was raised at a meeting with the governor by the speaker of the Legislative Assembly Valery Malyshev. Commenting on the message of the mayor of Ulyanovsk Dmitry Vavilin about the transition from free travel for all schoolchildren to the introduction of a system of preferential categories due to the pre-bankruptcy state of MUE Ulyanovskelectrotrans, Mr. Malyshev said that “the situation of transport workers cannot be improved with children.”

“We squander tens of millions of rubles, but we can’t find them for children. Have you calculated your reputational losses? the speaker asked the mayor.

Free travel for schoolchildren introduced first in Dimitrovgrad (for buses) and then in Ulyanovsk (for trams and trolleybuses) in 2019. In Dimitrovgrad, the regional Ministry of Transport provided the benefit, which spent about 35 million rubles a year from the budget. In Ulyanovsk, Ulyanovskelectrotrans, according to the mayor, voluntarily accepted this benefit without receiving additional funds from the budget. In total, MUP needs about 100-120 million rubles to compensate for shortfalls in income.

At a meeting of parliamentary committees, the regional Minister of Transport, Sergei Vorontsov, noted that free travel for all schoolchildren “is practically not used in any region of Russia,” and suggested that it be introduced only for low-income families. But the city hall of Dimitrovgrad says that there is no money in the local budget for this either. During the discussion, it also became clear that no one can say exactly how the shortfall in carrier revenues is calculated. So, in Dimitrovgrad in 2020, schoolchildren made 804 thousand trips, and in 2021, despite the peak of the pandemic and distance learning, already 1.34 million.

With the thesis of the first vice-mayor of Ulyanovsk Sergey Mishin that free travel was introduced “exclusively because of the pandemic”, the parliamentarians did not agree.

Non-factional deputy Matvey Volodarsky expressed the opinion that “in 2019, Governor Sergei Morozov decided on free travel to maintain his rating, and the new governor made a gift to United Russia by canceling this.” This conclusion was supported by the leader of the Communist Party faction Vitaly Kuzin: according to his version, United Russia Morozov introduced free travel in Dimitrovgrad to strengthen his position in the fight against the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, which had a majority in the City Duma, and in Ulyanovsk to strengthen the position of United Russia on the eve of the elections to the City Duma in 2021.

“Why all of a sudden, on the eve of September 1, officials decided to announce the cancellation? Where were you three or four months ago? Why should we divide children into those who can and who cannot? And what does it look like politically? It turns out that the previous government introduced this, but a new governor came and canceled everything? – the deputy Abdulkhak Murzakhanov (KPRF) was perplexed. And even the leader of the United Russia faction, Vasily Gvozdev, said that those who made these decisions “set themselves up and everyone else”, “dipped out of the blue”, and “most importantly, they set up the governor.”

On the sidelines, the deputies expressed confidence that such a serious issue as the abolition of free travel for schoolchildren could not be resolved without agreement with the first persons of the region.

Therefore, following the results of the meeting, it was decided to send an appeal to the governor Alexei Russkikh and the head of the regional government Vladimir Razumkov with a proposal to return free travel for schoolchildren. Dmitry Grachev stressed that this is the unanimous position of all factions and this is the first time this has happened in the relations between the deputies and the regional authorities.

In an interview with Kommersant, Vice Governor Alexander Korobko, who oversees domestic politics, admitted that the issue is moving into a political plane. According to him, the regional authorities are “for ensuring that children travel for free”, and “the opinion of the deputies must be taken into account.” “But first you need to figure out how much to pay and to whom. In fact, before that, carriers were paid, who tried to take the money to the maximum, and no one counted how many children travel in reality. So far, it seems that they helped the carriers, not the children. We are waiting for a full analysis of the situation and all calculations from the authorities of Ulyanovsk and Dimitrovgrad, after which a final decision will be made. Maybe it will cost not as much as they say now, but much less,” said the vice-governor.

Ulyanovsk political scientist, member of the expert council of the regional foundation for professional research RAPIR Nikolai Vasin believes that “the issue of abolishing free travel is acquiring a very serious political connotation.” “There are situations when the executive branch is forced to take unpopular measures. However, this should have been done earlier, at the peak of problematic issues against the backdrop of sanctions, to provide evidence of the need for such a step, to work out in advance measures to optimize the process. But making a decision on the eve of September 1 is extremely wrong. This is a serious blunder in the political bloc of the governor and a big fault of the heads of Ulyanovsk and Dimitrovgrad: they actually framed Alexei Russkikh, who is now in a difficult situation, ”the expert emphasizes.

Sergey Titov, Ulyanovsk