With about seven months left for the 11th Plan to be complete, Trashigang dzongkhag claims to have completed about 90 percent of its planned activities.

The achievement, officials say, is in terms of implementing activities as well as in budget spent.

Under the agriculture sector, the dzongkhag has cleared more than 200km of farm roads taking the length to 811km from 600km in the previous Plan.

Agriculture officials say that the on-going works of 10 farm roads are expected to complete by June next year.

Senior planning officer with the dzongkhag, Wangchuk, said that almost all major activities in the 11th Plan have been completed. “We are now left with spill over activities under the education, religion and culture sectors.”

He said that all activities would be completed by June next year.

The planning officer, however, added that some of the major works such as the construction of infrastructures in some of the central schools are on going. “The bypass road construction and a two-storey parking space in the town are yet to be completed.”

He said that one of the major challenges in Trashigang town is parking crunch. “With the completion of the two-storey parking, we expect the problem to be resolved.”

Wangchuk said that the car park and the bypass road should be completed in the next two to three months.

He said that major renovation works of a tshokhang in Kanglung and a lhakhang in Lumang gewogs are underway.

Officials said that under the health sector, about 98 percent of rural households in the dzongkhag are connected with piped water. To retain and encourage hospital and BHU staff in some rural areas, maintenance and construction of new staff quarters in Bartsam, Kanglung, Thrimshing and Khaling have also been completed.

Wangchuk said that the dzongkhag initiated awareness campaigns to educate people on health issues and that they could see the impact of such campaigns.

Under the livestock sector, the dzongkhag has exceeded milk production from its targeted quantity of 4,110 metric tonnes (MT) annually. Last year the dzongkhag produced 6,710.1MT of milk, the highest in the country.

The dzongkhag, however, fell short of meeting its target in producing four million eggs. The dzongkhag produced about three million eggs last year.

Of the total Nu 508.515 million (M) allocated to the dzongkhag for the 15 gewogs in the Plan, Lumang gewog received the highest (Nu 55.065M). Bartsam gewog was allocated the least (Nu 18.456M) in the Plan.

Wangchuk said that budget was distributed based on resource allocation formula, which took into consideration parameters like population, size of the gewog, poverty incidence, and transportation index among others.

He said that given the remoteness of Lumang gewog and the large number of population and high incidence of poverty, it received the highest budget. “Similarly, Bartsam received the least because the gewog has easy access to the dzongkhag and has low poverty incidence.”

Similar to the 10th Plan, the education sector in Trashigang received the highest budget (Nu 345.400M) followed by agriculture (Nu 327.537M).

Wangchuk said that one of the major challenges while implementing the planned activities came from the shortage of human resources. “One engineer had to look after two gewogs. Many think this would have compromised on the quality of the work but despite the shortage, we have not compromised on quality.”

He said that although there were many developmental activities in the villages, there were not many people who would benefit from these facilities. “All productive age groups have left for better opportunities.”

As of 2013 (latest figures), there are 1,055 empty houses (gungtong) in Trashigang. With 162 empty houses, Bartsam gewog recorded the highest gungtong, followed by 137 in Phongmey and 135 in Radi.

Younten Tshedup | Trashigang

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