With the closure of border gates and a completed lockdown in India, people in Jomotshangkha Dungkhag under Samdrup Jongkhar are now isolated from other Dzongkhags. The Dungkhag is connected to other parts of the country via Indian highway.
However, residents are thankful for the timely intervention and say there is no risk of COVID-19 spreading in their community.
Jomotshangkha shares border with the Indian state of Assam where 24 cases of COVID-19 has been reported as of today. The Dungkhag used to have many people from across the border coming in as daily workers. And now with the closure of the border gate, they feel safe from COVID-19.
Tenzin Lungten, the Tshogpa in Langchenphu Gewog said to BBS over the phone that they are happy with the government’s decision to close the border since 23rd March. “We feel safe and we are hoping that the disease will not spread in three gewogs in our Dungkhag since border gate is closed, however, Jomotshangkha is not interconnected with the motor road, we may face problem in future,” he said.
Kumar Biswa, a resident of Jomotshangkha shared that although they are safe they are worried how they would be able to cope up if the border closure continues. “With border gate closed no one is allowed to enter and exit. Army, police, forest personnel and general pubic use to patrol along the border area and no is allowed to cross the border area. So we feel naturally safe here from COVID-19, but if the closure continues we are worried because we don’t have inter motor road,” he added.
And Without internal road connection within the country, transport buses are left idle for 12 days now.
Residents say they need the internal road, especially during such a situation. The internal highway construction work was started from 2016 and it is still not completed. The chief engineer of Department of Roads in Samdrup Jongkhar says 47 kilometres of the road from Jomotshangkha to Samdrup Jongkhar has been already cleared and the remaining 11 kilometres will be cleared by DANTAK soon. He says currently DANTAK is carrying out the detail project report of the road construction work.
Kumar Biswa also added that with the closure of the entry points the town remains silent without any visitors. He said people there are still aware of the threat of COVID-19 and taking necessary precautions. “Most of the people stay in their respective houses and in a week visit the FCB to buy essential items. All the shops are open but with no people coming from across the border it is safe here,” he said.
Meanwhile, Food Corporation of Bhutan in Samdrup Jongkhar has already stocked up about 27 metric tonnes of rice, about 3 tonnes of oil and about 1 tonne of pulses in Jomotshangkha Dungkhag.
Kinley Wangchuk
