The construction of a new farm road in Dagana will require at least 500 metres in length and five households with permanent residents. This is as per the new local guideline for the construction of farm roads recently endorsed by the Dagana Dzongkhag Tshogdu. The new guideline, according to the Dagana Dzongkhag administration, is to streamline farm road constructions in the district.
The district administration, while proposing the guideline, said the Farm Road Guidelines 2019 lacks minimum road length and household requirements for farm constructions. In such cases, the district officials said there are chances of misuse of farm road budgets.
It also found that the provisions of the Farm Road Guidelines 2019 are not followed at the local levels.
According to the deputy chief district agriculture officer, D.C Bhandari, the gewog offices would make their own decisions regarding the construction of farm roads.
“It is in line with agriculture and based on that we are just trying to streamline the farm road proposals.”
But the proposal sparked a debate when some of the DT members raised concerns that some communities would be deprived of road connectivity if the guideline is endorsed.
“This proposal may restrict us from constructing farm roads for those residents living in scattered settlements,” said Tsangkha Gup Neuley Tshering.
“Such a guideline would only undermine the privileges of the communities having less than five households and these households will be left without farm roads for their entire lifetime,” said Drukjeygang Gup, Singye Dorji.
Meanwhile, some of the members also recommended the house to take into account the Thram holders for farm road constructions.
“Out of 15 Thram holders, only one family is residing in one of the communities in my gewog. In this case, the family will not qualify for the farm road. So it would be grateful if we construct farm roads on basis of thram holders,” said Tashiding Mangmi, Raj man Blon.
“In one of the villages in my gewog, 22 out of 27 households migrated to other places. This is all because of the lack of farm road connectivity to the village. Therefore, if we could consider farm roads based on several Thram holders, this will help stop rural-urban migration.” said Nichula Mangmi, Kharka Bdr. Tamang.
Dagana Dzongda, Duba, said the house could revise the guideline after a few years depending on the coverage of farm roads in the gewogs.
“The first thing is to prioritise farm road constructions for those people living in the distant communities with maximum residents. It would be wise for us to spend budgets for the majority than for a few households or individuals. And gradually we can shift to few households and Thram holders,” he added.
After a lengthy discussion, the house endorsed the guideline with the proposed requirement of having a minimum of five households with residents but reduced the required length from more than one kilometre to 500 meters.
The guideline will be effective once the gewogs receive the Dzongkhag Tshogdu’s resolution officially.
Pema Tshewang, Dagana
Edited by Yeshi Gyaltshen
