Opposition member branded the Prime Minister’s State of the Nation Report as too repetitive as it included many aspects of the previous reports. Calling it ‘much ado about nothing,’ Panbang Member of Parliament, Dorji Wangdi said the report included many projects the government had promised since 2013.
At, ‘Meet the Opposition’ session, the members of the opposition said the Prime Minister had reported almost the same things as he did in his previous state of the nation reports, which meant projects are yet to materialise or start. They said this has made it even more difficult for the government to achieve self-reliance, while the concept remains central to government policies.
MP Dorji Wangdi said the government has derailed from its course when it came to achieving self-reliance by 2020.
He said, at the most optimistic level, Bhutan would have only 3,000 MW of additional energy by 2020. The Prime Minister reported the four Joint venture hydropower projects in 2013 but it is yet to take off. Similarly the government is yet to provide housing for low income group.
“The government had promised to provide free housing to the low income groups and civil servants in the previous report, but it has not yet happened…” said MP Dorji Wangdi.
The Opposition Leader Dr. Pema Gyamtsho said to achieve self-reliance, we need to have economically viable export based projects and provide employment, but it has not happened. He said, self-reliance began from homes but the government was making the people too dependent by providing them free electricity, subsidies, and free seeds.
He said the idea should be to make them independent by slowly discouraging them to move away from subsidies and freebies. Opposition members also said the State of the Nation Report did not have anything much on unemployment and economy although they have been recognised as a priority.
