An Engineer to design ‘cottage industries’

Gleaning over 20 years of experience as an engineer in various sectors of government and private firms, 50 year old Rup Narayan Adhikari will particularly try to accomplish ‘cottage industries’ in the country running on Bhutan Kuengyam Party (BKP) ticket from Kikhorthang gewog, a clash with the Deputy speaker.

“I am also responsible for rural electrification and I have trotted far and away meadows and hills of all pockets of the country and I know the hardships that our citizen faces and I know exactly what I should work on,” said Rup Narayan. He said that helping the ‘rural lot’ will be his priority.

Asked what would be his top priorities if elected, he stressed now that Bhutan has the basic facilities like electricity, people must strive towards creating job opportunities through ‘cottage industries’ which is really lacking in the country. His past experiences of over 20 years, managing micro-hydel projects, solar and wind energy and rural electrification will come handy to do it well.

He described his move as one ‘collective call’ and said that he is answering the ‘call of the people and of experiences’ he has garnered over the years.

Rup Narayan said that it is now ‘payback time’. “I think now I must serve people and politics, is one way I can really help the people of our country,. Joining politics, I think is also my moral responsibility,” said Rup Narayan Adhikari.

The contesting parties had also offered their ticket to Rup Narayan to contest from their party but BKP had already approached him with a party ticket, and moreover he immediately liked the pulse of BKP, ‘Self-Sacrifice’ and ‘Selfless service to the people’.

“The name BKP itself is very heartening. BKP was right under my nose and all my ideologies for the country were contentedly put in the manifesto of the party that had ‘self-sacrifice’ and ‘selfless service to the people’ of the country, I really liked the party. It also happens to be my dream team now,” said Adhikari.

Rup Narayan is married with three kids, his wife is a civil servant and two of his children are already in the line of engineers. He did his pre-university from Sherubtse College in 1983, his under-graduate in electrical engineering from Regional Institute of Technology from India and acquired a masters degree in environmental science from UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Delft, Netherlands.

Puran Gurung