In Samdrup Jongkhar, although a new Gomdar Gewog Administration office has been constructed at Khoyar, the office has yet to relocate. Despite completing the construction seven months ago, disagreement among villagers has put a hold on the move. A new office was constructed after the old gewog office was buried by a landslide in 2020, forcing the administration to operate from the gewog guesthouse.
The new, 12-million-ngultrum gewog office, remains empty today. The new office is located 10 kilometres away from the current gewog centre in Tshangchilo.
Residents say since the bank, school, and hospital are in Tsangchilo, it will be inconvenient for them if the gewog office is in Khoyar.
Tashi Norbu, a resident said, “Here villagers can go to the hospital and meet their children in school while visiting the gewog centre. It will be convenient if the office is here. It won’t be much of a problem for people living nearby but for people from far-flung places, it will be difficult.”
“It is convenient at the current location as the new location is far away,” said Phurba Wangchuk, a resident.
“We would be happy if we keep the gewog centre here at the current location. Otherwise, we have to walk for around two hours or else we have to reserve a car, which would cost us around 2000 ngultrum,” said Rinchen Dorji, another resident.
People also added that they are reluctant about relocation because the former local leader did not do proper public consultation and that they were not aware of the relocation.
However, the former gup told BBS that all the formalities were carried out to relocate the gewog centre to Khoyar. The gewog administration also had reports of the former gup consulting people on relocation.
Since the construction of the new Gomdar Gewog Administration office incurred a huge budget, some of the villagers say that the gewog office is wasting government resources by not moving to the unoccupied office.
Rinzin Wangchuk, a resident said, “The government has spent a huge amount to construct the office here and the gewog centre has still not relocated. We do not know what the problem is.”
“If they keep the office unoccupied, there will be damage. Since the infrastructure is complete, I think it is wise to move here,” said Langa, another resident.
“I do not know why they are not moving here. The office is complete and if it is left unoccupied for a long time, it will get damaged,” said Yejay Norbu, a resident.
The matter also was discussed, yesterday, at the Dzongkhag Tshogdu.
The Gomdar Gup requested the Dzongkhag Tshogdu to allow the villagers to vote on whether they wanted to relocate the gewog centre or not.
Gomdar Gup, Karchung said, “The new gewog office is complete and it has been around seven months, and we still could not move to the new office. That is because people have been complaining a lot. Moreover, the new office does not have furniture and office equipment.”
However, the gup’s request was turned down since the new structure was constructed as a gewog office.
The House ordered the district administration to write to the Gomder Gewog Administration to relocate the gewog centre to Khoyar.
Kinley Wangchuk, Samdrup Jongkhar
Edited by Sangay Chezom
