Monthly Archives: December, 0

The Australian government has been inundated with visa applications from international students around the world since its border reopening in February this year. For international students from the South Asia region including Bhutan, the Australian High Commission in New Delhi is escalating their efforts in clearing the visa backlog. However, they are advising students to lodge visa applications at least eight weeks before the commencement of their courses to avoid delays.

The National Assembly today adopted the Opposition Party’s motion to provide an adequate budget to local governments to maintain Gewog Centre or GC roads. The amount, however, has not been decided yet. The local governments currently receive Nu 30,000 per kilometre to maintain GC roads.

The National Council Member of Trashigang questioned the Works and Human Settlement Minister regarding the slow progress of highway construction between Trashigang and Samdrup Jongkhar. The MP pointed out that the construction works are so slow that even after 15 years, works on the 180-kilometre road remain incomplete. In response, the minister said the ministry is aware of the situation and has been monitoring the works. He also said the construction works have been affected and delayed due to the pandemic and problems with contractors.

Finance Minister Namgay Tshering says he does not support the National Assembly’s proposal to provide designated duty vehicles for Members of Parliament. This he said will not only incur a cost of more than Nu 203 M but also contradict the government’s plans to reduce the number of vehicles in the country. 

Bhutan's aim to maintain more than 70 % forest coverage for all time to come is threatened by frequent landslides and forest fires. In what could be a game changer to achieving this ambitious commitment, students of Dechencholing Higher Secondary School have come up with a model. The model named "Environthon Innovation” has all the solutions.

Disallowing private construction works in identified Red-zone and Green-zone has left many people confused. The National Council member of Punakha raised this during the question hour session in the council today. Green or environmentally sensitive zones are designated areas in which there should not be any construction or excavation, whereas red zones are areas that have a higher risk of exposure to disasters.  

Riding on the belief that one man's trash is another man's gold, many scrap dealers made a living collecting and exporting scraps. When the country closed its borders due to the pandemic, the dealers realised trash is but trash with no value. To ease the struggle, they even formed the Scrap Association of Bhutan but the good old pre-pandemic days of the scrap business are lost forever, at least for now.

Works to develop a comprehensive and uniform Bhutanese sign language are expected to gain pace. The Wangsel Institute for the Deaf in Paro, where the research works are carried out, has recently finished constructing a new research and academic block. The institute is hopeful that adequate space will help them come up with better and faster results.

A community forest group in Dechhenling Gewog of Pema Gatshel will soon be able to make the best use of the abundant bamboo in their forest. The group underwent training to make furniture and other home-based utensils recently.

His Holiness the Je Khenpo has consecrated the Sangay Minjur Lhakhang in Phuentshogling. As part of the event today, a Jetsun Milarepa Thongdrel was also unfurled. Hundreds of devotees attended the event and received blessings. The magnificent structure atop the hill of Ramitey is a replica of the Serkha Guthog Lhakhang in Tibet built by the enlightened Tibetan scholar, Jetsun Milarepa. Construction of the monastery began in 2013.