The more I think about it the more it becomes clear to me that the basic reason why many public or community amenities and facilities that are started with great fanfare do not take very long before they stop functioning or fall into neglect and disrepair is because we, as individuals who are in charge of that amenity or generally as a community where the asset is located, do not take pride, responsibility and ownership of the assets.
We don't have to look far to find examples of what I am talking about. A new flyover is inaugurated with great fanfare, many artistes are employed to paint pretty scenes of our local culture on its side walls, but within no time people begin to spit on those murals; within no time the flyover begins to look as shabby and dirty as all the others. The same goes for our streets, our public toilets, our footpaths. We 'use' them but think we are not responsible for keeping them neat and clean. Let the streets be dirty, let the street lights not work, let the garbage dumps on the roadside stink, let our public toilets be nightmares, that is not our business.
We pay taxes to the government, don't we? They have to take care of these amenities. They are not our problem!
Yes, we pay taxes. Yes, the municipality is supposed to keep them clean. But are we not responsible in some way as well? Is there nothing that we ought to be doing? What about stopping to spit or throwing refuse onto the drains and the streets? Who is responsible for that? If nobody owns up to their own share of responsibility, then how will they ever become better?
Same goes for other public spaces like the Sankardev Kalashetra, the newly erected ropeway, the District Library, the Assam State Zoo, the Assam State Museum, and most recently, the new Heritage Museum that has been inaugurated in the old DC's bungalow only in mid October 2021.
I went to visit that posh new museum soon after getting back in November. The lawns are very well laid out. The views of the river are spectacular. There were some visitors but most of them were busy taking selfies of themselves in the backdrop of the river. But the old DC Bungalow was in total darkness. There was nobody who we could ask for help. There was no Visitors Book where we could even lodge a complaint. The uniformed guards informed us that there was some serious transformer problem and that electricity would not be restored that afternoon. As a last resort I called a friend in the GMDA and complained. Electricity was restored within minutes! And even then, there was no curator or caretaker inside who could tell us anything about the displays, about the items exhibited there. And just last week I have heard that the musical instruments that were on display in the upper level have been damaged by big rats that were always there in that building.
This story is very telling: first, that the government does not seem to know how to (or can't be bothered to) maintain and take care of a public facility once it has been created at a huge expense of public funds, even a couple of months after its inauguration. And that facility will be spruced up and will come to life only when some top government officials, politicians and VIPs visit; normal visitors can take selfies with the river and go home. Whether the paying public get to see the museum or not is not at all important for the one's running the place.
But how will the public every take pride in what has been created there if they do not even get to see what is there? On the other hand, why is it that the public are also unconcerned? After all they have paid a hundred rupees each to get in. Why do they not demand to be be shown the museum, why do they not think of complaining if there is no electricity? I think the main reason why this happens is because there is no public involvement or stakes in this project. The GMDA has created this space with the help of a handful of 'experts', without actually taking the public into confidence. Members of the public were not asked to participate in the decision-making process of what the museum should contain, they were not invited to the inauguration, it was an affair of VIPS and government officials and their security. So how can they claim ownership of the place? How can they feel good about having such a nice museum in Guwahati. It is not right to just blame the public, they were never taken into confidence.
Hence now that it is done and the initial excitement around the inauguration has waned, neither the public nor the GMDA nor anyone else seem to care very much. Very soon, this facility too will go the way of all other such public facilities. The same goes for the government sponsored cultural programmes, art exhibitions and other such tamasha.
I once attended a programme of Indian classical music organised by some cultural affairs govt. department at the Vivekananda Kendra. I came to know of it just by chance because one of the musicians who were performing was known to me. In the hall there were exactly 7 people in the audience including me. In fact at one point there were more people on stage than there were below. What an absolute waste! Why invite such well known artistes to perform, pay for them to travel to Guwahati, put them up in grand hotels, reserve huge auditoriums for the programme, if you cannot ensure that people hear about the programme and come to attend? What is the point of holding the programme otherwise? Same goes for various government cultural shows and events that happen at the Rabindra Bhawan from time to time. Or exhibitions at the Kalakhetra or Shilpagram. Or the much touted tourism fairs or melas where a lot of money is spent but very little achieved? Why is the public not informed, not invited, not encouraged to come and attend?
I think there is a disconnect between the government and the public, perhaps it is because the government believes that they know everything better and don't need to consult anyone; perhaps the government thinks that the public is a nuisance, that they will never agree on anything so it is much less trouble for everyone to leave them out. Fair enough but do they not at least have a duty to inform the public what they want to do with the money collected as taxes from the public. Or is it perhaps due to the callousness of government officials who just try to do just the bare minimum, in order to please their bosses; the public be damned!
And once these assets are created, a museum, a park, a library, it is handed over to some sarkari salaried people to maintain and keep going, people for whom the museum or the park is just a job. With the motto of doing the absolute minimum to keep the job, they are happy of nobody visits the facility. Since they are not interested at all, how can they enthuse the public to visit or even their own subordinates to keep the museum in good working order? So once the VIPS have gone, the plants begin to wilt, dust begins to accumulate, electric bulbs get fused, the curtains come down slowly and things go into a half dead languid stupor till the next VIP visits again and things have to be spruced up overnight. What about the public? Do they not have the right to go and visit? But if you go by the attitude of the museum staff, they will be happier if nobody came, less work for them.
On the other hands, institutions which have had committed and knowledgeable people in charge, even if it is just one person, have become models of how things should be done. Think of that Government PHC in Rani which has become a showpiece of how a government primary health center can look like and what facilities it can offer its patients. Think of that huge campus of some refinery or industrial plant where thanks to the foresightedness of the founding CEO, hundreds of tall Ashok trees line the inner roads of the colony. And once the people who are in charge or who live there are taught to feel proud and lucky about what they have, they will learn to take responsibility and slowly they will take ownership of those assets and make sure that they are kept in good working order and fulfil the purpose they have been created for.
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