Claims the gewog administration didn’t get a written consent to allow the road through his land 

SDP: Claiming he was not consulted, a lone landowner in Tsirang has decided to not allow the Tashiyenjong – Kaphredara farm road in Kilkhorthang to pass through his land, construction for which began last month.

A landowner, Bhawani Shankar from Tashiyenjong said he would not allow the road to go through his land, as the gewog administration did not seek any written consent from him before they started its construction.

“If the gewog authority had discussed with me before they started the construction, I would ‘ve given them my approval,” he said.

He added that the two U-turns on his land have caused massive damage to his arable land uprooting 15 fruit bearing citrus trees.

Works to construct the three-kilometre Tashiyenjong-Kaphredara farm road started on August 14 and the first cutting is already completed.

Kilkhorthang Gup Tshewang Norbu said the farm road’s construction was planned after consulting the people of Tashiyenjong chiwog.

“The complainant has agreed through his presence personally during the road survey in 2011 and we did not bother to get the written statement,” the gup said.

Gup Tshewang Norbu added that if Bhawani Shankar did not want the road to pass through his land, he should have stopped the construction when it started so that they could have changed the road alignment. He said the gewog and people have also replaced his citrus trees that were damaged in the cutting.

Gewog mangmi Rinchen said that during the road survey in 2011, Bhawani Shankar supported the chiwog for the construction of the road and was persuading others to support the development saying it would improve the people’s livelihood.

He added that Bhawani supported the construction even after the work started but changed his decision on August 29.

One of the farm road beneficiaries, Dil Bahadur Tirwa, said that all people living in Tashiyenjong would be affected if the road was not allowed from the takeoff point and the money spent on it would also be wasted.

“Bhawani convinced us for the road initially but we don’t understand why he is against it now,” he said.

The 3.25km farm road’s construction, worth Nu 6M is funded through the small development project and would be benefitting 70 households.

Yeshey Dema, Tsirang

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