The Anti-Corruption Commission is reviewing the allegations against the Gup of Dopshari Gewog in Paro. The Gup is accused of involvement in illegal state land registration, favouritism, deceptive practices and abuse of power. But the Gup said the allegations are baseless and not true. He was re-elected in December last year.
According to the copy of the complaint letter to ACC, the Gup is accused of converting Sokshing into an apple orchard for his sister. Sokshing is government reserved forest land in rural areas. According to the Land Act, Sokshing land shall not be used for any purpose other than the production and collection of leaf litter.
The letter states that the Gup colluded with the Paro land survey team and converted some 85 decimals of Sokshing land into an apple orchard. And his sister also got the land ownership certificate.
The Gup refuted the accusation against him. He said he declared a conflict of interest during the land survey in 2019 and was not involved in the survey. He said the National Land Commission and a committee from the gewog did the survey.
The Gup is also accused of assisting in registering a 35 decimal of land in a man’s name even after the High Court declared it as state land. The man had exchanged the disputed land with a woman a few decades ago. But since the man refused to give the ownership certificate, the case reached the court. In 2013 the High Court ruled that the disputed land was omitted from Thram and declared it as state land.
But in 2019, when the people of Paro were issued their ownership certificates, the woman found that the man received the ownership certificate of that disputed land. The Gup denied the allegation. He said both the parties appealed for Kidu for this disputed land. A nine-member committee from the gewog and officials from the land commissions were involved to study the case.
And the last allegation is re-registering over two acres of Sokshing land from Lhashing-Tobtokha as dry land in his aunt’s name after the resurvey in 2010. The land ownership certificate was issued in 2019.
In 1999 after a legal battle between his aunt and the community of Jangsa, the High Court reinstated the dry land as Sokshing. The aunt had lost the ownership of the land.
The Gup said the land was registered in 2010 and got Kidu in 2012, which is long before he became a Gup in 2016.
Namgay Wangchuk, Paro
