17 Households of Draagteng gewog in Trongsa, who lodged a complaint against the Mangdechhu Hydroelectric Project Authority, will have to wait a little longer for re-verification of their compensations.
They received compensations in March which ranged from 193 ngultrum to a little more than 8000 ngultrum. It was for the damages their houses suffered following the traffic of heavy vehicles in the area. The dzongkhag administration and the Project Authority had jointly assessed the damages.
Not happy with the amount, they returned it to the Project Authority through their gewog administration and asked for the dzongkhag administration’s intervention.
The Dzongkhag Tshogdue, during its recent sitting, then directed the dzongkhag authority to re-verify the case immediately.
Dorji, one of the affected house owner said they hoped the dzongkhag administration would come up with some directives but nothing has come out so far. “We refused the earlier compensation because it was not enough to pay for labour or buy materials to fix the multiple cracks.”
“In an enquiry earlier, I said four to five thousand ngultrum will be enough. After that I didn’t get any reply. I don’t know whether they will pay us or not. We are still waiting,” said Putshula.
Dzongkhag officials said they could not carry out the re-verification as desired because they were engaged with the annual Moenlam Chhenmo. They will do so after the Population and Housing Census is over next month.
Officials from the Mangdechhu Hydroelectric Project said they will join the dzongkhag administration’s re-verification team and act as per the dzongkhag’s directives.
