An association of 150 conservative civic groups Monday filed a petition with the Seoul Metropolitan Government to collect signatures from citizens to hold a plebiscite vote on the controversial free school meal ordinance passed by the city council twice last year.

“Free school meals and other splurging welfare policies are just tools of populism by populists. If the system goes around for more than three years, it will turn into a tax bomb and ruin us all,” Roh Jae-seong, the representative of the group, said in a press release. 

Three people ― former deputy labor minister Kim Song-ja, former Konkuk University professor You Tae-young and honorary professor at Korea University Hahn Sung-joe ― filed the petition on behalf of the association. Former prime ministers Kang Young-hoon and Hyun Soong-jong, former National Assembly Speaker Kim Soo-han and Yeouido Full Gospel Church Minister David Cho will support the movement as senior advisers.

The move came as Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, who denounced the ordinance and walked away from negotiations with the councilors, publicly offered a popular vote to decide whether the plan is actually supported by Seoul citizens.

Oh said free meals were “free cheese on a rattrap” and said wasting on the meal system would hamper the nation’s preparations for unification with North Korea.

Oh has recently tightened his schedule to mingle with the conservative association and the groups have agreed to support the voting though many opponents claim that the vote itself, which is estimated to cost 12 billion won ($10 million), is wasteful.

The groups say that the signature collection of more than 420,000 people, which is expected to take about six months, will pave the way for voting that may nullify the ordinance.

The current plan is to provide students, starting with 180,000 elementary school fifth and sixth graders this year and gradually expanding to all, with free school meals, especially lunches. The council approved the budget of 70 billion won last year by cutting the government’s overseas promotion and other construction-based projects, which prompted threats from the administration to not execute it at all.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)