Roads: Private lands affected by the East West highway widening along Nubi and Tangsibi gewogs will be resurveyed. This was one of the resolutions of the Trongsa Dzongkhag Tshogdu (DT) held on April 20.

DT Chairperson, Nubi Gup Tashi Penden raised the issue. He said the road widening work did not go according to the initial survey.

Gup Tashi Penden explained that the people lost more land than what was surveyed, compensated and given land replacement. “Gewog has received a number of verbal and written complaints already,” he said.

Nubi Gup presented to the DT members that a resurvey must be carried out and people who have lost 10 acres and above must be given land replacement in line with the Land Act. Providing an example, the gup said some people have lost eight decimals of land initially and if they have lost two decimals more today, they should be given land replacement.

Tangsibji Gup Jigme Namgyel said Tangsibji is one of the most affected gewogs by the road widening. In some places, land has slid towards the road making them uncultivable besides more land being cut for the road. “Such cases should also be taken into account,” he said.

Gup Jigme Namgyel also said road widening works has also destroyed an irrigation channel for paddy fields at Thumang. The channel cannot be repaired in time for this paddy cultivation season. The Department of Roads may have to compensate the people calculating their loss of crop for this year.

DoR’s Chief Engineer in Trongsa, Tougay Choedup said there are some people whose lands, mostly located below the road, have not yet been surveyed. “We have written to the dzongkhag requesting to survey them soon,” Tougay Choedup said.

He said the dzongkhag will survey those left-out lands.

A report will be compiled and DoR will act accordingly. “Compensations will also be provided in line with the law if people have not been able to cultivate crops due to the road widening work,” he said.

Nima Wangdi, Trongsa