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🌿 So I’ve spent two days digging through various budgets to get a simple answer: how much do our major cities (Khi, Lhr & Isl) spend on their parks. I did not get any definitive answer to that, 🙄, but here are some fun things I learnt instead:
1) KMC is the ONLY local govt that actually shared a detailed budget, albeit in Urdu, rendering it unsearchable. They spent about PKR 1 billion on parks, but this excludes a number of large parks, like Safari Park, Zoo etc. But this is only a fraction of parks in Karachi...
We have no idea what is spent on parks in, e.g. @DHAKarachiOfc. They, or Cantt Board Clifton, share no budgets, ofc. They treat their residents as consumers, not citizens that they are accountable to. No surprises there.
Lahore, the self-proclaimed city of gardens, is far more opaque. The parks are apparently maintained by Parks & Horticulture Authority which gets a direct grant from provincial @GOPunjabPK. They got ~ PKR 2 billion last year, double the amount for the next 8 cities combined!
You know what they spent on? No idea. The PHA website has no budget, and no details. Lol. So much for transparency in the better-administered Punjab. Ofc, like Karachi, I’m sure that budget covers a part of the city, and not cantt areas etc.
The worst offender, surprisingly, is Islamabad. There is literally nothing: not from @CDAIslamabad or Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad. Where are your detailed budgets? There’s nary a press release on CDA’s website. How is this okay?! 🤷🏽♂️
So what have I learnt? The souvenir shop at Safari Park did a roaring business (38k actual vs 25k budgeted in 2017-18), the wheeler train was a disappointment (150k against 800k budgeted) and Mumtaz Begum (🦊)at the zoo raked in 1.7million for the city 🙌🏽
And while KMC’s budgets is in shambles, they continue to project a doubling of income year after year, against actual receipts which grow more modestly. I need this confidence in life. Thanks for coming to my TED talk. 🙏🏽🌿
