At about hundred meters away from Janaki Mandir in Janakpur sat 20 acres of unfenced empty land. To have such an empty stretch of land in the middle of an unplanned and dirty city was a blessing. It was a park of sorts where the sight of children playing cricket or running around on weekends was common. For those passing by, it was a pleasant sight. Unfortunately, that pleasant sight is no more. [break]
There is now a 6ft tall boundary wall surrounding this stretch of empty land. On the wall is graffiti. And because the engineers forgot to put holes in these walls, when it rains, water collects in this compound, making it a heaven for mosquitos to breed. Now that it is enclosed, in the absence of public toilets, it has also become a convenient place to urinate and defecate for visitors.
tribune.com.pk
One question that arises on seeing this is why would someone spend money spoiling something? Who benefited from erecting this expensive wall around an empty stretch of public land? What purpose does it serve?Who paid for this after all? And how do the residents of Janakpur benefit?
It is one thing to spend money in places that benefit only few at the expense of many, but to do something that benefits only a handful, and comes at expense to the entire city is another. The only beneficiary of building this wall appears to be the contractors, engineers, and planners who were responsible for building it. They must have been paid for it—and perhaps earned more than their salary.
It is not very clear who paid for this. The rumor is that the Indian Embassy granted money. And it is rumored that the half-constructed building without a roof inside the premise is a work in progress so that dignitaries can have a place to sit and enjoy the beauty of the vast stretch of the land when they visit. It is also unclear if it was done as an exchange, or as a courtesy to the grantors.
But it is very clear that residents of Janakpur lost out on this deal. They lost a beautiful and clean part of their city. The place now is neither clean, nor beautiful. The added filth and dirt that these walls have created makes an already dirty city, even dirtier. It will only deter the already meager number of tourists that comes to this “tourist town”.
How do incidents like this happen? The short answer is that it happens because this is a classic case of concentrated benefit and dispersed costs. In every project there are those who benefit and those that bear the cost. But when there is concentrated benefit, and very dispersed cost, even when cost outweighs the benefits there is a high chance of such an event occurring. In this example, the indirect cost of building the wall is shared by the entire residents of Janakpur, but because they are large in number, they have difficulty organizing and protesting. But those that benefit are a handful in number and know each other; they can organize and have their way at the expense of others.
To prosper, we will need to avoid such inefficient outcomes. To do so, we need to devise a mechanism that makes it easier for the residents of Janakpur to organize and protest successfully. And we need to make it difficult for planners to use public property for their own good at the expense of the rest.
A local government where the citizens are involved in decision making can effectively address such a problem. An example of such involvement would be to mandate a public discussion and vote on the issue. To make the process transparent and get people involved, both the discussion and the voting should be televised on local channels. This will raise awareness, and encourage people to listen to opposing views, and support the one they find more convincing. Ultimately, it will make it difficult for the planners to get away with plans that benefit them, but not the residents.
Unfortunately, our local governments are weak. One reason is because historically, we have a tradition of being governed from the top—the culture of holding local leaders accountable hasn’t developed yet. Another reason our local governments are weak is that our political parties are top-heavy—they are driven by a select group of people at the top rather than leaders at the bottom. This is a serious problem because this means that local politicians need to spend time toeing the line of their party leaders rather than heeding the citizens they represent. For example, if their party bosses are not happy, they may not even get a ticket to run for office. This makes them less concerned about what their electorate wants.
To spend money wisely, therefore, we need to empower local bodies, and make the local politics more meritocratic and transparent.
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