Thimphu Thromde has issued three notifications to former Chang gup Naku after Cheri Monastery officials complained that the gup had allegedly encroached onto their land and fenced it in Lungtenphug.

Gup Naku has allegedly refused to remove the fence even after receiving a verbal and two written notifications from the thromde.

Cheri Monastery officials filed a complaint with Thimphu thromde on July 5 requesting its intervention after they found that Gup Naku has encroached onto its 14 decimal land, which is located next to the gup’s.

A team from Thromde and officials from Cheri Monastery met Gup Naku on June 26 and surveyed the land. It was found that the barbed wire fencing had passed through Cheri monastery’s land encroaching about 2.14 decimal of land.

Thromde had asked the former gup to remove the fence. The monastery initially had 20 decimals of land, which later reduced to 14 decimals after land pooling.

According to a source, Cheri monastery had to write to the thromde to intervene because the former gup may encroach onto its land further.

A thromde official said it is illegal to encroach land as per the Land Act of Bhutan 2007. The thromde, as per the development control regulations first issued a verbal notification on June 23 followed by a written notification on June 26 to remove the fence immediately. When Gup Naku did not remove the fence, the thromde office issued a second written notification on July 10. He said the thromde had to intervene because the area falls under the Lungtenphu local area plan.

The official added that the gup would be served with a third written notification and if the fence is still not removed, the thromde would demolish it as per regulations.

The thromde’s notifications, however, have not given a deadline to remove the fences.

Gup Naku in a telephone interview refuted the allegation. He said he fenced the land that belongs to him and as per the ancestral land demarcation.

“Thromde should not interfere nor is it Cheri Monastery’s representative,” he said. “The issue is between the monastery and I and I had to fence the land because the monastery was encroaching onto my land.”

Yangchen C Rinzin