A hundred land leaseholders in Chamkhar town in Bumthang have written to the Dzongkhag Administration requesting a lease term extension. They submitted an appeal letter on Tuesday in response to a notification from the administration informing them to make necessary arrangements to move to new Local Area Plans within September 1, next year.
The letter states although the lessees respect the notification, it would be difficult for them to procure land in the new town planning areas and construct houses due to the economic challenges they are currently facing.
It also points out the need to have infrastructures such as internal roads, electricity, drainage and sewer ready before the September 2023 relocation deadline.
“We have been doing business in Chamkhar for a very long time now and we have nowhere else to go. In some other towns like Gyalpozhing Monggar and Wangdue Phodrang, the relocation was facilitated by providing plots on state land to the business communities. We are expecting the same here. If it is not possible to provide plots, we would like to request the administration to extend the lease term by another 10 years,” said Dorji Tshering, a resident of Chamkhar town.
“Due to the pandemic, we are even struggling to make ends meet. Now people are stressed over the relocation notification. We don’t know if the Dzongkhag administration has an area identified to accommodate all the shops in Chamkhar but in our case, we have no means to ready ourselves for the relocation,” said Sangay Phuntsho, another resident of Chamkhar town.
“We will have to buy land to relocate our shops but the land prices have shot up significantly, so we can’t afford them. We are worried if we would be able to buy land as well as establish our businesses on time,” said Tshering Phuntsho, a resident of Chamkhar town.
Some shopkeepers whose livelihoods are fully dependent on their businesses in the town are overly stressed out. Most of them are caught off guard by the notification.
“We are pleading with the authorities. We have nowhere to go,” said Dechen Tshomo, bursting into tears.
The Dzongkhag administration has not yet discussed anything on the appeal letter. However, a source said a lease term extension is very unlikely.
Meanwhile, there are no plans to allocate plots as in other districts and lessees are supposed to buy land from any of the three Local Area Plans of Jalikhar, Chamkhar and Dekiling.
Most state land in the Dekiling town planning area has been identified for the Wangduecholing Hospital expansion and other institutional buildings.
The Bumthang Dzongkhag Administration had recently issued an 18-month notice to the leaseholders in Chamkhar town to relocate their businesses within September next year.
The notification asked people to make necessary arrangements to avoid last-minute inconveniences. This has left the residents with divided opinions. Chamkhar town is almost entirely established on state land.
There are 130 leaseholders in Chamkhar town from various districts. All of them were given a 10-year lease in 2011. About half of them were provided newly built semi-permanent structures following the second major fire incident. Their lease term was given a two-year extension last year.
For now, the fate of the town remains in limbo. There are more than 200 business entities run by people from 18 districts in Chamkhar. They have divided opinions and a lot of things could unfold in the next 18 months before the lease term expires.
Kipchu, Bumthang
Edited by Sonam Pem
