Picture story
Villagers in Wangmakhar in Chali gewog, Mongar, get together to pitch a temporary polling station for the National Council poll day on April 23. The dzongkhag will have a total of 76 polling stations on the day.
Sunday, May 19th, 2013 - 5:08 PM
Mongar race seems wide open still
Now that the talk is done, it’s show time for voters
The public debate yesterday in Mongar left many voters confused on whom they should vote for in the National Council election.
So much so, that one of the 200 Mongar residents, Tenzin, who had listened to the three candidates at the Mongar lower secondary school auditorium, said that he would have to keep their photos under his pillow before poll day, and vote for the [... Read More]
In quest of a Bhutan-Bangladesh-India initiative
Senior government officials from the economic affairs ministry are in Bangladesh to discuss ways to improve cooperation in the region in sharing hydropower resources.
Several newspapers in Bangladesh have reported that Bangladesh, Bhutan and India have agreed to work towards development and management of hydropower and water resources in the region.
This will be known as the Bhutan, Bangladesh and India Initiative (BBI).
Economic affairs minister Khandu Wangchuk, in a telephone interview, said it was not possible to [... Read More]
Only a third of government schools have Internet access
While the internet was introduced to Bhutan more than a decade ago, the majority of schools in Bhutan still lack access to the world wide web.
According to statistics maintained by the education ministry, only 36 percent of government schools had access to the internet, as of March last year. This translates to 229 schools of 635. In contrast, all 26 private schools are connected to the internet.
It is also pointed out that most schools are [... Read More]
“Anything posted online is there forever”
Following the recent issue of two young Bhutanese girls, one of them a minor, who posted pictures on Facebook, one of them with kira rolled up to the length of a mini-skirt, while the other wore a kira mini-skirt, which invited obscene and vulgar comments from viewers, Kuensel’s Gyalsten K Dorji discusses the issue with Bhutan Centre for Media and Democracy executive director, Siok Sian Pek Dorji.
Q Besides Facebook, has BCMD noticed any other areas, [... Read More]
Tagged cranes send more ‘mail’ from Tibet
First ever study on black-necked crane’s transboundary ecology movement yields results
Around the end of February this year, one of the three black-necked cranes tagged with global positioning system (GPS) at Phobjikha valley indicated reaching its habitat in Kangmar county under Shigatse province in Tibet in just two hours.
The crane, named Ugyenling by researchers from Ugyen Wangchuck institute of conservation and environment (UWICE) in Bumthang, further provided information of flying at a height of more than [... Read More]
Voters corner candidates
…asking questions that ranged from poverty to caste to census
The whole of his five-year term as the National Council members for Tsirang, its former representative Justin Gurung, said he ended learning about the whole process of democracy.
The former council member was responding to a question a Kilkhorthang villager asked during a public debate about his most satisfactory contribution to the dzongkhag as their representative to the council.
“With those experiences, I’m confident that I can serve [... Read More]
It’s ‘fingers on the button’ time
By this time next week, Bhutan would have voted in a new set of National Council members.
Reminding everyone that coming Tuesday is poll day for council elections in all 20 dzongkhags, the election commission, through a notification issued yesterday, has urged all registered voters “to come out to vote” on the day.
As for the registered voters, although the commission is yet to establish the age breakdown of voters, projections with Kuensel show almost one in [... Read More]
Roads, bridges still top rural priority
Water comes second, it’s no.1 for urbanites
Road and bridges, better and continuous water supply and transport and communication services are priority areas for rural communities to improve their welfare, according to the 2012 Bhutan living standard survey (BLSS) report.
Respondents gave these as priorities, when asked to give three actions they deemed important for the government to undertake to improve their welfare during the survey.
Of the 84,427 households surveyed in rural Bhutan, more than 26 percent [... Read More]
Will Samtse go by gewog numbers?
It looks like each of the seven candidates will gain the full support of their own backyards
Addressing each other as bhai (brother), and calling themselves the “seven brothers of Samtse,” the seven National Council candidates of Samtse took turns to photograph their last common forum together yesterday in Tading gewog.
The men have been together for 12 days since the common forum started on April 5, and all seven confidently delivered their manifestoes for the last [... Read More]