Phurpa Lhamo | Punakha

With the recent passing of Goenshari gewog’s mangmi and with its gaydrung on maternity leave, the gewog in Punakha is today short of staff.

The gup and administration officer are the only officials providing services to the public.

According to Guy Yeshi Dorji settling disputes related to water, land, and marriages were some of the common issues in the gewog.

“Mangmi handles arbitration work. With him gone, I have to handle everything.”

In Goenshari, the nearest village to the gewog office is 7km away.

With the irrigation season starting, water disputes are expected to arise.

However, the gewog office has not received any complaint from the public with regard to unavailability of services.

Administrative Officer Kinley Choki said that on top of administration work, which mostly included planning, she had to handle the gaydrung’s responsibilities.

She added that with Covid-19 pandemic, there were more activities.

According to the LG Act, if a vacancy occurs in a local government for any reason before the expiry of its term, the chairperson shall without delay address a warrant to the election commission/officer of the locality for issue of a writ for elections to fill such vacancy, provided the remainder of the term is not less than six months.

Punakha’s election officer, Damcho Lhamo, was notified of the vacancy on May 11.

According Damcho Lhamo, the casual vacancy notification was forwarded to the Election Commission of Bhutan (ECB).