Monthly Archives: December, 0

To commemorate the Coronation Day of His Majesty the Fourth Druk Gyalpo, 15 tourist guides and 15 foresters came together to plant over hundred tree saplings of various species in Paro, today. 

People in the four gewogs of Shelnga-Bjemi, Toedwang, Chhubu and Dzomi are waiting for a budget to maintain their gewog connectivity (GC) road. According to them, the road was blacktopped about a decade ago, and today the road is riddled with potholes and in need of maintenance. The road starts from the Khuruthang bridge along the Phochhu River.

Gasa Tshachu or hot spring is one place where elderly and sick people from across the country visit for its therapeutic values. But the risk of the visitors falling sick from soaking in the hot spring is higher. And with no health worker at the site and the nearest hospital some 15 kilometres away from the hot spring, visitors say it will be difficult if any mishap occurs. 

The Eastern COVID-19 Task Force and the Dungkhag COVID-19 Task Force will be conducting a second round of strategised mass screening in Jomotshangkha dungkhag starting tomorrow. More than 5,000 residents will be screened in the coming six days. The Dungkhag is under complete lockdown since May 21, and including Khashateng chiwog under Merag, the dungkhag reported 152 positive cases so far.

The country's external debt is projected to reach more than Nu 225bn by the end of June 2021, an increase of 5.8 per cent from last year. This is according to the National Budget Financial Year 2021-2022. In June last year, Bhutan's external debt stood at more than Nu 213bn. Consequently, the debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio is 120.9 per cent.

The government is hopeful of allowing few tourists to enter Bhutan after the administration of the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in the country. Foreign Minister Dr Tandi Dorji informed this during the Question Hour Session of the National Assembly today. The Wamrong Constituency Member of Parliament, Karma Thinley questioned the Foreign Minister on the government's plans and programmes to address the problems faced by the individuals affected under the tourism sector apart from the 15-month financial support granted by His Majesty The King.

A complete lockdown has been imposed in Norboogang Gewog in Samtse after three positive cases emerged from the community this morning. The cases were detected from the mass screening carried out yesterday and on Sunday after four front liners tested positive for COVID-19 from the Mangay Point of Entry.

Close to 40 people from Na-Rang Gewog in Monggar submitted a petition letter to the Dzongkhag Administration last week to look into the quality of the recently blacktopped gewog centre (GC) road. They said they are not satisfied with the quality of the work and hope that their petition will bring improvements in future works.

The National Assembly directed the Good Governance Committee to revisit five recommendations from today's deliberation on the Anti-Corruption (Amendment) Bill. This was following some errors in the recommendations regarding the penal provision. The Good Governance Committee presented 53 recommendations on the Bill.

Only 33 of the 201 gewogs have completed their Granular Sub-base (GSB) works since Phase I of the project to improve farm roads with GSB began in July, last year. Phase I includes one farm road for each gewog. The Works and Human Settlement Minister, Dorji Tshering informed this responding to a question on the update of the GSB works on gewog farm roads across the country.