The Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa’s Party (DNT) President Dr Lotay Tshering and its candidate for the Chhoekhor_Tang bye-election, Dawa, started the election campaign from Chhoekhor Gewog yesterday. Blacktopping farm roads and recruiting medical experts are some of their pledges.
The DNT’s President promised to blacktop the farm roads of Chhoekhor Toed and Dhur. At the moment, the roads are poorly maintained. Dr Lotay Tshering also pledged to equip the district hospital with four medical experts among others.
“Candidate Dawa told me that there are mobile network issues for yak herders in Chhoekhor Toed. For that, we will establish a network tower. We will also blacktop the farm road even though it doesn’t qualify for blacktopping but we will do it as an additional capital work. We will also send a gynaecologist, a paediatrician, a surgeon and a medical specialist to Wangdicholing Hospital. We will also upgrade Zhabjethang Primary School to a boarding-primary school if the people demand,” pledged Dr Lotay Tshering, the President of DNT.
Some people questioned if the pledge of blacktopping the farm roads is reasonable.
“Dhur road is a logging-based road as of now. It has to be converted into a farm road first and then into a feeder road to be eligible for blacktopping. On top of that, I heard that there must be a few construction or manufacturing projects nearby, so we are not sure if the blacktopping budget would be really sanctioned,” said Tshering Dorji, from Dhur under Chhoekhor in Bumthang.
“We hope to get our farm road blacktopped properly whoever gets elected. Parties have been pledging about blacktopping the road for a very long time now,” added Tashi, from Nangsiphel, under Chhoekhor.
The DNT’s candidate, Dawa said the roads can be considered for blacktopping as most people of Chhoekhor Gewog live in upper Chhoekhor.
“Though these roads are classified as farm roads, they should be eligible for blacktopping as the gewog office is near Bumthang town and not even a kilometre of the road had to be blacktopped. Moreover, a huge percentage of the gewog population live in Dhur and Chhoekhor Toed,” said Dawa, the DNT’s Candidate.
The DNT will campaign in Tang and Bumthang town today.
The Election Commission approved the participation of the DNT’s Party President in the campaign for two days. The commission earlier issued a notification disallowing travels, public gatherings or official tours by any Member of Parliament or party official to the constituency during the election period.
Kipchu
