Cable Television in most houses in Lhuentse has been down for almost a year now, leaving people deprived of news and entertainment. This has left the people disappointed and frustrated. And with the National Assembly Elections ongoing, people have not been able to watch debates and other election-related stories, aggravating their frustration.
Most of the houses have a television set connected to satellite dishes.
According to the people, a private company called Rabgay Dish offered cable services to them a year ago. However, the television sets sit idle today without connection.
The residents say the cable connection went down a few months after the installation and nobody from the company was available for maintenance. The residents said that the private operator was reachable only until they paid the money for the cable.
Since then, people have not been able to watch television, which has prevented them from staying informed.
The effect is being felt more during the National Assembly Elections when they could not watch their candidates’ debate and election results.
Maenbi Gup, Ngawang Dhendrup said, “he forced the Gewog Administration to ask people to buy and install his private cable. We were excited for a good cable connection. However, after the installation, it did not work and the people are disappointed with it.”
Tabi Tshogpa, Tenzin Norbu said, “although we try to call the company, they never answer our calls. Our residents have the dish on their roofs but none of them are useful. It is very disappointing, especially during the election periods like now. There are important debates and information we have to listen to but we cannot access them.”
“When they came to install the cable, they said they would provide good service without any problems. He said we needed to pay Nu 6,000 and we did it. However, it worked only for a month,” said Phuntsho Rabten, a resident of Gangzur Gewog.
“We tried to contact the cable’s representative in our gewog but he was also not available. I bought the materials myself and tried to repair it. So it works for a while,” said Gembo Dupchu, a resident of Maenbi Gewog.
However, the residents have not filed any official complaints with the Office of the Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority or with the police.
While contacting the cable representatives appointed to address the technical glitches in the gewogs, they said that don’t work for the company since they are not getting paid anymore.
BBS tried to contact the owner of the company but he was not available.
With the general round of the National Assembly well underway, residents are worried that they will remain uninformed and unable to effectively take part in the country’s democratic process.
Namgay Dema, Lhuentse
Edited by Sangay Chezom
