The issue came up for discussion after the Sarpang chimi submitted that the sand and stone deposits in the dzongkhag should not be been given on contract as the dzongkhag would need it for its own development activities like the railway link and the airport.

“People in the dzongkhag now fear that the sand and stone deposit would exhaust if auctioned for use in other parts of the country,” he said.

The Sarpang dzongda, added that the dzongkhag had to build protection walls covering about 1,500 acres along Mao Khola for which would require a lot of sand and stone.

He said that if the dzongkhag’s resources were auctioned it would have to buy from elsewhere and it would be expensive.

The Bumthang chimi, Dorji Wangchuk said that it would be difficult to realise the country’s policy of balanced development if dzongkhags having sand, stone or timber in abundance started saving the resources for their own development.

The agriculture minister, Lyonpo Sangay Ngedup, said that the auction of sand and stones was being carried out in all the dzongkhags according to the Nature Conservation Act and Forestry Act.

He said that it would be unreasonable not to auction the natural resources which some dzongkhags had in abundance given the present development scenario in the country.

The trade and industry minister, Lyonpo Yeshey Zimba, said that there was no need for Sarpang dzongkhag to fear about their resource’s exhaustion. “Although the resources would be lifted today, they would accumulate during the next monsoon season,” said the minister. “People just have to make sure that the sand and stones are not wasted and managed well.”

The minister specified that they had identified about 1,500 acres of land in Jigmeling in Gelephu on which they had plans to build big factories and an airport. He said that there were even plans to expand the present Gelephu town.

Lyonpo Yeshey Zimba emphasised the importance of making raw materials easily available for the people within the country, for which it was essential for the government to frame a price scale so that the cost of materials were reasonable.

To facilitate better and easier access the minister said that the forest department and geology and mines chathrims should be studied thoroughly and made clear and put up during the next session.

The prime minister, Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuk, said that one of the ways to make easily available the materials was by reducing the cost. “The CCM has asked the Department of Geology and Mines and forestry department to work on that and submit a report,” he said. “Based on that report, we will investigate and frame a policy that would benefit the Bhutanese people,” he said.

The Royal Advisory Councillor, Dasho Sigay Dorji, said that the agriculture ministry auctioning the resources contradicted chapter nine, section 13 of the 2002 DYT chathrim. “The chathrim clearly states that besides the dzongkhag administration no other government bodies had the authority to award the sand and stones extraction contract,” he said.

According to the 1995 management act of the geology and mines, extraction of stones and sand had to be routed through DYT and then approved by the dzongkhag administration.

The National Assembly speaker, Dasho Ugen Dorje, said that auctioning procedures of sand and stone should be strictly adhered to. He reminded the Assembly that what was important was that the material should be made available to every Bhutanese who needed it.