A decade ago, people living in the community above Simtokha Bridge in Thimphu were promised development activities. But there was a catch. They were to give up certain portion of land in land pooling. Soon after the land pooling, the locality was categorised as a town area and was brought under Lungtenphu local plan area in 2002.
Years went by but not a single facility came to the locality. And without basic amenities in place, the community barely gets by. The people living in the community had to stop farming as rules forbid it once the area falls under town planning.
A member of the affected family, Dago Tshering, said when they signed the agreement for land pooling, there was an understanding that they will get facilities like road network, proper drinking water, sewerage and drainage. “We don’t have anything like that still. We gave away our land to the government thinking it will benefit us,” he said.
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When they signed the agreement for land pooling, there was an understanding that we will get facilities like road network, proper drinking water, sewerage and drainage. We don’t have anything like that still.”
Dago Tshering
Affected member
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Another affected member, Yangden said the land pooling has done more harm to them than benefit.
The community does not have a proper area to dump the wastes. The small drainage is clogged with waste. And without proper drainage system, pools of water have formed near the buildings.
“At times I feel like I am living in a forgotten town,” said Tshering Om, a resident from the community. She said the garbage trucks come only till the highway and there are people like her who lives away from the highway.
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They even face shortage of water. Many constructions have come up and many people have started residing in the area which has led to water crisis of sort in the community.
People said they have informed Thimphu Thromde about the problem time and again but no respite has come their way.
The Thimphu Thrompon, Kinlay Dorjee, said the locality was excluded from the development activities because the Thromde could not achieve the required land pooling percentage meaning not all people signed the agreement. However, he said, the 11th five year plan will take care of the development activities in this locality.
