Image: The figures given by the PM’s office

PM’s office counters social media posts by anon on Chopper use

Responding to a Facebook post by an anonymous account on Facebook over the frequent use of helicopter services by the Prime Minister and cabinet ministers the Prime Minister’s office issued an official clarification.

The clarification on the PM’s official Facebook account said “It is unfortunate to see some people spreading false information on the helicopter services availed by the Prime Minister and other Cabinet Ministers. As evident from the information below, the Prime Minister has availed only 18 flights between 2016-2017.”

The post by the anonymous account had given a log sheet of information to make it appear that he was giving official information though the poster in one of his own later comments agreed that his information was fake after the clarification came out.

However, on the PM’s official page a Sonam Lepcha said he did not agree with the above statistics as he had seen Lyonpo D.N Dhungyel from  MoIC coming to Yonphula in Helicopter on 8th October 2017 for the inaugural of Yonphula Domestic Airport. The statistic showed zero number of times for the MoIC minister.

To this the MoIC Minister coming on the PM’s official Facebook page responded saying, “Dear Sonam Lepcha, yes, I was there in Yonphula on 8th Oct for the inauguration of the newly renovated runway of the Airport and I did travel by the Chopper. However, I was just a passenger traveling by it since the Chopper was hired to take the ADB Country Director and one ADB Officer.”

The minister went on to say, “ For your information, the renovation of the Yonphula Airport was undertaken through the budgetary grant of over Nu. 200 million from ADB. Therefore, a Chopper was hired to take the Country Director as a Guest of Honor for the inauguration.”

The anonymous poster again questioned why the figure was zero for the Agriculture Minister who had used a chopper for the highland festival last year.

Here, the minister clarified to The Bhutanese that the chopper had actually been hired and paid for by a Japanese and he was just a passenger. He said that at other two times he had only travelled with the PM.

The Minister for Economic Affairs Lyonpo Lekey Dorji on his facebook wall said, “Please ask the people spreading false news saying Hon PM has used helicopter 98 times when he only used 18 times what is their source of information.”

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