Connectivity: Villagers of Thrizor village in Martshala are hopeful for a road connectivity that would help them churn out a good business from their milk cooperative.

Thrizor villagers are the majority of the 30-member cooperative “Jersey Tsoto Detsuen,” but the lack of an access road has discouraged them from selling milk in large volume. To reach the nearest road point at Gorthungma, they have to carry more than 10 litres of milk for almost an hour.

Villagers said since the road has reached Gorthungma, gewog officials could have constructed the road by another four kilometers to their village. Martshala is about 13km from Samdrupcholing dungkhag headquarters.

Farmer Leki Wangmo said milk and dairy products are their main source of income and a road would not only help them access the market but also enable them to take construction materials to the village to construct houses.

“The road will help bring development to the village,” another farmer Jigme Dorji said.

The group’s chairperson Dorji said they sell about 100 litres of milk, five kilogrammes of butter and about 30 balls of cheese, everyday, collected from three villages. The group earns about Nu 90,000 a month.

“But we are still unable to meet the demand,” he said. “Customers often tell us to increase the supply.”

However, he said, this is for now not possible since 90 percent of the group members are from Thrizor. Even if villagers are interested to rear more jerseys, the absence of a road has discouraged them from increasing milk production.

“Thrizor villagers are hardworking but they say it’s difficult without the road,” he said, adding those who have road access are not bothered in producing dairy products.

Meanwhile, Gup Yenten Dorji said that while the gewog administration understands the plight of the villagers, the Nu 1M from the gewog development grant was prioritized for another chiwog, which has no road access at all and where residents have to walk for almost eight hours.

“Thrizor is at least better compared to other villages,” he said.

Yangchen C Rinzin,  Samdrupcholing