National Council’s Good Governance Committee (GGC) said the quality of farm roads needs to be thoroughly reviewed as there are substandard roads surfacing in many parts of the country. The Chairperson of the committee, Sangay Dorji said poor coordination and communication between central and the local government is to be blamed for the poor quality of roads. The issue was highlighted during the presentation of the interim review report on the quality of farm roads today.
According to the Good Governance Committee, there are over 2000 farm roads measuring nearly 10,000 kilometres in the country. And from nearly 700 farm roads investigated, over 5 per cent was found to be unusable while 51 per cent was found to be functional only on a seasonal basis.
The committee said farm roads were constructed to link farmlands and markets to transport inputs and agricultural produce. However, its scope diversified to non-agricultural sectors at a later stage.
The committee added lack of ownership for road maintenance and improper implementation of the Farm Road Development Guidelines led to the poor quality of farm roads.
“Although the government had placed the farm road construction and its maintenance in the plan, it is not implemented as per the farm road guidelines and plans. That is why we had to review the farm road quality. On the one hand, the government is financially supporting and investing graciously on farm roads but on the other hand, works are divided among many stakeholders in the local government. Road ownership is also lost in between. Eventually, the funds for maintenance are exhausted and the roads are left without care,” said the committee’s chairperson.
Today, a farm road is monitored and enforced by six different agencies including the local government in accordance with the Farm Road Development Guidelines 2019.
The committee will incorporate concerns from other council members in the final review report which will focus on the quality of roads. The final review report will be presented in the next session.
Tshering Dendup/Sonam Tenzin
