Dagana Dzongkhag is sceptical about taking over the Gewog Centre (GC) roads from the Department of Roads (DoR) as ordered by the cabinet. The local leaders highlighted the issue during the recent Dzongkhag Tshogdu (DT) as the district does not have enough engineers for the task.
The cabinet in May this year issued a directive that the Local Government (LG) would be responsible for the construction, maintenance and operation of GC roads.
At present, the dzongkhag administration has 10 engineers looking after 14 gewogs, a municipal and a dungkhag. And a minimum of 10 developmental activities is there in each area for this fiscal year.
“At the moment, we share an engineer among four or five gewogs. This is not convenient. There is a chance of misunderstandings arising within the gups as all of us will rush to complete the planned works on time,” Namgay Pelden, the Tashiding Gup, said.
The officials said, without additional engineers, adding the GC road’s responsibility onto those existing would pose a hindrance in timely service delivery.
“We are already bogged down with the construction of farm roads, irrigation channels and many others. And now, we have to take over the GC roads as well. With the present manpower, it would be difficult to deliver as expected. We have requested the works and human settlement ministry for an additional 4 to 5 engineers within this month or the next. If not, we might have to cut down a few of our capital works,” Phintsho Choeden, the Dagana Dzongda, said.
“If we do not get additional engineers by the end of September, we will not be able to complete the targeted works on time. As of now, we have only seven engineers in the field. So we will complete the works that are possible by the seven of them. People forget to appreciate when things go right but if it is otherwise, they blame the engineers and report it to through the media,” Jamyang Dorji, the Dzongkhag Engineer, said.
Besides engineers, local leaders said the gewog administrations are also in short of other human resources such as accountants.
The Dzongkhag Tshogdu decided to write to the works and human settlement ministry for immediate deployment of engineers. The House will also write to the Department of Local Government and the National Assembly regarding the shortage since the Local Government Act mandates deployment of engineers and accountants in every gewog.
