Phurpa Lhamo  | Wangdue

Gups in Wangdue dzongkhag expressed concerns over the decrease in budget allocated for gewog centre (GC) roads maintenance.

Several gups raised their concern at the Dzongkhag Tshogdu (DT) session held on Tuesday, September 15, in Wangdue.

According to Dangchu Gup Pemba, the gewog has received around Nu 555,000 for the maintenance of the 18.5km GC road in the gewog. The Department of Roads (DoR) maintained the road earlier. The work was handed over to the dzongkhag and then to the gewog management recently. Gup Pemba said that earlier when maintenance was done by the DoR, a worker received Nu 44,000 for maintenance of one kilometer road. This however, had decreased to Nu 30,000 today.

Pemba said that the number of workers had also decreased from 11 to nine to maintain the 18.5km GC road in Dangchu.

At the DT, Dzongkhag Planning Officer Passang Dorji asked the gups to currently manage with the budget allocated. He said that if the available funds were insufficient after the work begins, the dzongkhag would try to increase the budget next year. With the monsoon nearing its end, there would be less road maintenance work required, Passang Dorji said.

Apart from the decrease in the budget allocated for road maintenance, the government had not approved a fund of Nu 24.80 million (M) proposed by the dzongkhag for the construction of worker’s dwellings along the road.

Local leaders from Nahi, Dangchu and Nyisho gewogs expressed similar concerns over the issue.

Dzongkhag Chief Engineer Tshering Choephel said that the budget proposal of Nu 24.80M was for GC road maintenance workers in 12 gewogs. He added that the budget had decreased because of the Covid-19 situation in the country.