Leaseholders in Chamkhar town have been granted an extension for the third time to relocate to the new townships. A one-year extension has been granted as Kidu to leaseholders operating their businesses in Chamkhar town. They can now vacate the town by August next year. They were initially asked by the district administration through a notification issued in March last year to prepare to vacate the town by next month when the lease term extension expires.
The lease agreement for plots in Chamkhar town was set to expire in September this year, following which the residents are to vacate the town.
However, the extension was granted as Kidu after the shopkeepers’ appealed that they needed some more time to recover from the economic impact of the pandemic.
However, since the construction works had already started with some of them even having completed their constructions in the three Local Area Plans (LAPs), the relocation was extended for not more than one year.
As of now, construction of 20 units in the three LAPs of Jalikhar, Chamkhar and Dekling have been completed. The Thromde Ngotshab said construction of another 131 units will be completed soon. Likewise, he also said that the construction of 53 units will be completed after September.
There are 130 leaseholders in Chamkhar town, all of whom were given a 10-year lease extension in 2011. The District Land Lease Committee, last year, said it will not extend the lease term from this year.
Chamkhar town is set to be relocated, primarily as the current location is found to be in a flood hazard zone.
A joint inspection by the National Land Commission (NLC) and the District Land and Survey Sector, in 2021, found almost 70 per cent of them had violated the lease agreement. 26 of them had partially sub-leased their structures while 58 had fully sub-leased, meaning their structures were fully given on rent. It was found that four of them had even sold their leased plots along with structures.
Following the inspection, the NLC instructed the District Land Lease Committee to take action. However, the committee decided not to terminate the lease agreement immediately due to the economic challenges posed by the pandemic.
Tashi Yangden
Edited by Phub Gyem
