The government has decided to shut down the Education City Project. At Meet the Press yesterday, the Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay said the Cabinet had decided not to be a part of the project, which had been termed “illegal” by the National Land Commission.
The Secretary of the Land Commission said that it sent several warnings to the Bhutan Education City Secretariat regarding the legality of the land. This, according to the Land Secretary, was done a long time ago.
Concrete work on the Education City Project started in 2011 when Ernst and Young did a feasibility study of the project at Wangsisina. Since then, discussions on the project had taken place in all areas.
The Parliament passed the Education City Act in 2012. The Opposition Party, the Druk Phuensum Tshogpa, under whose administration the Project was started, continue to support the project wholeheartedly.
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At a meeting with the press on Thursday, Members of the Opposition Party maintained that the legality of the land shouldn’t be a question. The former Works and Human Settlement Minister, Yeshey Zimba, who was the Chairperson of the Board then said numerous discussions, in both the Houses of the Parliament and also involving government secretaries, were held. “Nobody said the land was illegal,” he asserted.
Meanwhile, the Bhutan Education Secretariat chooses to remain silent. The Board project was supposed to meet yesterday but the meeting was postponed to March 4.
It looks like the Education City Project saga has come to an end but this, definitely, is not the end.
In fact, there is a lot that needs to be answered now. Numerous issues will have to be addressed like the investments made on the project so far, the cost implications for the government when breaking the agreement with the site developer and, most importantly, finding out those responsible for what is being described as a huge lapse and holding them accountable.
For now, work at the Education City is still going on, as if oblivious of the huge controversy surrounding the project.
The bridge is almost complete and the approach road has reached the border of what might have been the education city.
