About 130,000 elementary-school children will begin receiving hot lunches in school after a compromise version of the Hot Lunch Law was approved yesterday by the Knesset Education and Culture Committee. Eight committee members voted for the bill, while five abstained.

The proposal raises the maximum per-meal price from NIS 3, as specified in the bill approved by the committee in early September, to NIS 4.5. As a result, wealthier municipalities will not have to increase their funding of the program, relative to last year.

In addition, Education Minister Yuli Tamir and Union of Local Councils Chair and Carmiel Mayor Adi Eldar came to an agreement under which the state will fund 10 percent of the hot lunch program for six municipalities, including Carmiel. According to sources close to the parties involved, that budget bonus was critical in obtaining Eldar's support for the program.

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The bill that was approved yesterday was criticized by MKs as well as social welfare organizations.

"The conduct of the government and the local authorities regarding the lunch program is very questionable," the deputy director of Yedid, the Association for Community Empowerment, said yesterday. "We will appeal to the state comptroller and ask him to examine the conduct of the ministries and local authorities on the issue in order to make sure that this time, in contrast to last year, parents are not being overcharged illegally."

Education Ministry officials confirmed that last year, certain municipalities overcharged parents for meals and expressed the hope that this situation would not be repeated.

Much of the criticism directed against the Education Ministry and Tamir yesterday concerned the delay in launching the program. "The government could have acted efficiently and come to an agreement with the municipalities before the start of the school year, which would have prevented the delay in getting the program running," Education Committee Chairman MK Michael Melchior said.

Tamir announced yesterday that within a few weeks, she intends to submit an amended version of the bill redefining the division of responsibility for the program among the various authorities involved and giving her ministry more decision-making power. "It's a bad law that created an unworkable mechanism which places all the responsibility for operating the program on the ministry - but does not grant it decision-making powers," Tamir said.

Currently, funding for the program is divided among the Prime Minister's Office and the Education Ministry (NIS 80 million), the Sacta-Rashi Fund (NIS 27 million), and the municipalities and parents (NIS 54 million). The budget and eligibility criteria for the program are set by a committee headed by the director general of the Prime Minister's Office, but they must also be approved by the Knesset Finance Committee and the Education and Culture Committee. It is the Education Ministry's duty to shepherd the bill through the Knesset, even though it has only a partial role in drafting it. The municipalities, which execute the program, are not represented at all on the committee that determines the budget for it.