Being inspired by the spirit of volunteerism, a 37-year-old man has come forward to fill potholes on the eleven-kilometre Gewog Centre road in Chaskhar in Monggar district. He embarked on the mission last weekend. And within two days, he was able to fill potholes of nearly nine kilometres of the stretch.
Lungten Jamtsho uses this coarse gravel from alongside the roads to fill the potholes. He is currently working as a supporting staff in one of the schools in the gewog. Lungten believes that improving public property like roads will gain him good merits and bring good luck.
“All kinds of people including His Majesty the King, His Holiness the Je Khenpo, Trulkus and monks pass through this route. And it is not convenient, especially for someone like me who drives a vehicle. I embarked on this mission taking inspiration from the quote “Great people don’t do great things, they do small things in a great way” said Lungten.
And Lungten is not alone in his mission, his 16-year-old son is helping him make the stretch pothole-free.
“I am thankful to my father for tagging me along. I can also come forward and take the lead in doing something similar when I grow up,“ said Ngawang Tenzin, Lungten’s son.
“I tagged him along with me because I don’t want my son to indulge in bad habits like substance abuse and alcohol. I want him to go on the right path,” said Lungten.
Every day, a dozen of vehicles passes through the stretch. And with potholes now filled with Lungten’s initiative, commuters enjoy a smooth ride.
“Any kind of social service is supposed to be carried out by the residents of Chaskhar Gewog. However, we are grateful to him who is from another gewog for doing this for us,” said Tshewang Dorji, a resident of Chaskhar Gewog.
“When a person from another gewog is volunteering, we are grateful to him. The road used to be in a good condition. But it gradually worsened due to heavy vehicles transporting materials from the quarry site,” said Pema Dorji, another resident.
However, Lungten no longer has to continue filling the potholes as the Chaskhar Gewog administration has decided to take it from here. The gewog plans to fill the potholes within two months.
The Gewog administration reasoned that they could not carry out the maintenance as the initial budget for repairing work was fully utilized for other things.
The gewog receives more than Nu 360,000 every year to maintain GC roads.
Sonam Tshering, Monggar
Edited by Sonam Pem
