The weather condition in Ney resettlement area under Gangzur in Lhuentse is unyielding but the people, even more so. Their unwavering determination to take chance at freedom can be gauged through the way they throw themselves at work.
People in Ney believe every time a new person visits their village it rains. When it is not raining, the village, created three years ago under His Majesty’s people’s project, is covered in mist. Winter brings them snow.
But, the re-settlers are not complaining. The rehabilitation programme has given them a chance to till their own land.
Three years ago, 43-year-old Kinley Wangmo left Pangkhar in Khoma for Ney, with her husband and four children, to start afresh. Even though her family had to start from the scratch, she does not regret her choice to relocate. “I am very happy here,” she said.
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A few cattle she brought with her have grown in number. She has sown millet and maize in her own tract of land below her house. Kinley Wangmo’s two youngest children are away at school.
“In Pangkhar, even though we worked a lot we had to share the crops with the landlords. But here, we get to keep what we grow,” said Kinley Wangmo’s daughter, Sonam Deki.
Under the Ney Resettlement Project, 51 families relocated from eight gewogs, live in an area spanning over 147 acres. They were earlier poor and landless. They practiced sharecropping, raising crops for the owner of a piece of land. In return, they are either given a portion of the crops or money.
“Now, we have enough land to pass on to our children. For now, we will till the land and pass to our children,” said one of the beneficiaries, Younten.
The village, which is about, 29 kilometres away from Lhuentse Dzong, is connected with farm road, electricity, Basic Health Unit and a school.
After almost 40 years of being, the new place, high up on the slope of a mountain, has given Kinley Wangmo and many like her a chance at freedom.
