The 21st-century economic roadmap has proposed for the financial and administrative autonomy of Thromde. As per the draft, it is to delineate authority between the Thromde and the central agencies which as of now lacks clarity. And as per local experts, this is likely to prevent initiatives and developmental activities.
The country today has four major Thromde in Thimphu, Phuentshogling, Gelegphu and Samdrup Jongkhar. As of now, Thromde staff are civil servants. And financially, they are governed by the finance ministry.
And local experts say Thromde has the potential to be a great city. But this potential is being eroded every day through mismanagement, apathy, and the sheer incompetence of the people tasked with the city’s care.
Meghraj Adhikari is one of the first urban planners in the country. He said autonomy for Thromde is linked to efficient urban management.
“I feel that some of the not very successful people have been placed there. And they all know that Thrompon is there only for five years. So they can ignore some of these things. Does he have the power to hire and fire? I think by rule he has but at the same time, the environment is such that he cannot do it. If he fires somebody, will he be able to get a next person to perform his day to day duties?” he said.
This means the elected leaders’ vision is not effectively translated into action. He said the Thromde is entirely dependent on government assistance for any meaningful capital investments and maintenance. So, a pothole that could be fixed within minutes, would have turned into a crater by the time the central government’s funding is approved.
“If the Thromde has the autonomy to decide how the Thromde should look, how the Thromde should come up in the future, how the Thromde should be developed, I am sure we can do much better. Right now we are not able to sustain ourselves from the current revenue collection. If Thromde is delinked and if Thromdes are made autonomous, we will require additional authority in terms of collecting taxes, fees, charges and levies. We will have to actually generate our own revenue,” said Tougay Choedup, the Executive Secretary of Samdrup Jongkhar Thromde.
“One of the common problems in the thromde arises from the four divisions of land record, infrastructure, urban and developmental regulatory division. All are civil servants and when it comes to land, they even have a parent agency. And sometimes these parent agencies transfer them without informing the thromde which affects services. If there is autonomy in all the Thromdes, service delivery and development will go efficiently,” added Lungten Jamtsho, the Executive Secretary of Phuentsholing Thromde.
The finance minister, however, said Thromdes have enough autonomy when it comes to financing. As for administrative autonomy, he said it calls for an amendment to the Local Government Act.
“The fees and taxes that they collect and use itself is financial autonomy. And if there is any supplement budget, the government started with an annual block grant from 2019. When we give budget allocation from the central government to the Thromde as an annual block grant, Thromde has the flexibility to prioritise based on the local context. So earlier, it was not like that,” said Namgay Tshering, the Finance Minister.
The call for delinking the Thromde was proposed a long time ago. But the recommendation in the draft economic roadmap has made it even more urgent for better cities.
Samten Dolkar
