People from the four gewogs of Phuentshothang, Pemathang, Martshala and Samrang in Samdrup Jongkhar will now have till March 22 to procure earth moving equipment which will be hired by the State Mining Corporation Limited at Habrang and Tshogpangma coal mines.
The community under the legal entity of Pemi Dejung Kuenphen Private Limited failed to raise enough money from shares to buy the earth moving equipment within December last year which led to the SMCL calling for open competitive bidding for the hiring of earthmoving equipment at Tshogphangma coal mine on January 14. The community then appealed to the Prime Minister to revoke the tender.
According to the appeal letter submitted to the Prime Minister, the private company formed by the people from the four gewogs alleged that the SMCL has committed to involving the community by hiring earthmoving equipment from them once the present contract expires in February this year. They appealed to the Prime Minister to revoke the tender called by the SMCL.
And as per the government’s directive, the SMCL has given time extension to Pemi Dejung Kuenphen Private Limited till March 22 to purchase machinery which will be hired to SMCL for coal mining at Habrang and Tshophangma. Delighted with the extension, Pemi Dejung Kuenphen Private Limited has now started to work on procuring the machinery.
However, Pemi Dejung Kuenphen Private limited need to fulfil certain conditions set by SMCL. While the private company has to raise money from selling shares, the shareholders should all be from the four gewogs. And the private company should have majority membership from all the households from the four gewogs and not confined to a few households. Among other conditions, the private company has to procure and own 22 new excavators and five new wheel loaders which they would hire to the SMCL and registration books of those machineries should be submitted to the SMCL by March 22.
“We are ready to purchase the machinery, we have been talking with dealers about it, dealers say if we get work they have agreed to give us earth moving equipment. All the documents are ready and it has been shared to SMCL also,” said SangayWangchuk, a committee member of Pemi Dejung Kuenphen Private Ltd.
“It will be beneficial if the work is awarded to the community rather than giving it to one individual, we believe that whatever we do everyone has to be benefited so I think this mining also should benefit all the people living in the community,” said Tenzin, from Phuentshothang.
The SMCL’s letter also stated that partial fulfilment of the conditions will not be acceptable, and the SMCL will not be liable for that in any manners. Since the SMCL has already tendered out the earth moving equipment’s hiring at Tshopangma coal mining, any liabilities due to this postponement shall be levied on Pemi Dejung Kuenphen Private Limited, in case the company fails to fulfil the conditions.
As of now, Pemi Dejung Kuenphen Private Limited has collected more than Nu 30 M of the targetted Nu 180 M from about 3,900 shareholders.
Kinley Wangchuk, Samdrup Jongkhar
