Monthly Archives: December, 0

The long wait for an answer to the human-wildlife conflict in Korphu Gewog of Trongsa came in the form of eight-foot chain-link fencing that will enclose the entire fields in three chiwogs of the gewog once complete. The residents will no longer have to guard their crops against wild animals from next month.

The Home Minister has tendered his resignation letter to the Prime Minister, yesterday. Last month, the larger bench of the high court upheld the lower court's judgment and convicted the Home Minister Sherub Gyeltshen to two months.

Bhutanese women have made progress in national political representation. But the country still suffers from very poor women representation at the decision making level. To encourage more women to come forward, the Bhutan Women Parliamentary Caucus organized a three-day workshop that ended recently.

The battery continues to be one of the leading crimes in Thimphu. According to the Police, almost 250 battery cases were recorded last year. However, compared to the previous years, it has decreased in 2020. The decrease, according to the Police is due to intensive patrolling.

To address the issue of pollen gap in the orchard and to increase hazelnut production, Mountain Hazelnuts has come up with three measures such as supplying polliniser saplings, mass grafting and manual pollination programs. The Mountain Hazelnuts is currently carrying out the manual pollination program in the country. Meantime, the company conducted the mass grafting program and supplying polliniser saplings. 

The country's unemployment rate reached an all-time high at five per cent last year. It is almost double the rate of unemployment recorded in 2019. More than 16,000 out of over 300,000 economically active people actively seeking and available for work remained without work in 2020. This is as per the Labour Force Survey report released by the National Statistics Bureau (NSB) today.  

The case regarding the relieving of the Executive Director (ED) of the Film Association of Bhutan (FAB) and missing equipment, gifted by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), was withdrawn from the Thimphu District Court recently. The ED was relieved when he was about to file a case on the missing KOICA equipment last year.

In a turn of events, the Finance Minister now says that State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) might not get the  Performance-Based Variable Incentive (PBVI). Lyonpo said an independent performance evaluation team will provide their professional input to review all the ratings that will tell if the SOEs are entitled to the incentives. PBVI is an allowance that will be given based on the annual performance of a company.

The COVID pandemic has affected people from all walks of life. One section of the society affected by the pandemic has been those aspiring to pursue studies and work abroad. Hundreds of applicants have been unable to take their international language proficiency exams which is a must when applying at universities overseas.

Bhutan This Week-- a look back into the week's top news stories from across the Kingdom. Watch Bhutan This Week on Saturday at @10:30 pm