APA: As the financial year 2015 ended, Trashigang dzongkhag is well on track to achieve the targets set in the Annual Performance Agreement (APA) signed with the Prime Minister.
Education sector is steadily seeing good progress with the primary enrolment at 98 percent. Adult literacy and learning outcomes have improved. Two schools are setting up poultry farms under the “3 eggs per week per child” programme. Two central schools have also been established.
In the health sector, 99 percent results have been achieved in terms of providing clean rural drinking water, while 94 percent of the rural households have improved facilities.
Livestock sector is already on the verge of meeting its target of milk production. So far, 3,229MT of milk was produced against the target of 4,025 MT. More than 50 percent results have been achieved for egg and meat (pork) productions.
Although agriculture officials were concerned about paddy and maize productions because of the hailstorm, the yield was good. Despite the harvest being affected by the incident, Radhi gewog produced 908Kg of paddy against a target of 1,000Kg. About 97 percent of maize production in the dzongkhag was achieved.
Meanwhile, the forestry sector is lagging behind.
Officials said the targets would be achieved since most of the activities would be carried out at the final quarter of the financial year.
“For instance, activities like planting of trees starts at by April and the growth should be observed for a couple months before we count the survived ones. Hence, the work is seasonal and takes time,” an official said. “ We are limited to working on few indicators alone at this time of the year.”
In the last six months, four new community forests were established against a target of 11 while the management of these forests is improving. Currently, officials are preparing more community forest plans and training farmers.
“Overall, Trashigang is making a good progress with all the sectors. Most of the farm road constructions are complete and 100 percent safe drinking water supply in the urban areas has been achieved,” Trashigang planning officer, Wangchuk said.
On the other hand, he added that the progress rating in the agreement for infrastructure construction like buildings gets delayed. For instance, the progress of buildings is rated after the constructions complete while it takes more than a year to complete the work.
“Hence works are spilled over to the next financial year and the progress for the year is not reflected in agreement. This affects our performance score,” Wangchuk said. “Instead of counting the buildings once complete, the progress should be rated in percentages. The issue was raised and changes should follow.”
Tshering Wangdi, Trashigang