The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The people of Orong gewog under Samdrup Jongkhar say they are dissatisfied with the performance of past government as the pledges made in 2008 have not come to fruition. This comes at a time when the parties are wooing voters to get through the primary round of elections.
People say they were neither provided with adequate assistance, in terms of human wildlife conflict, which is an extensive problem in the gewog, nor did the elected member pay any heed in delivering what was promised.
Further, the people said that the DPT has not walked their talk, in terms of providing access through the construction of farm road and rope ways. Those facilities were deemed as most essential for development requirement in the villages of Menchiri and Arong. They said none of the activities were accomplished by the DPT government.
The communities that talked to The Bhutanese said the blacktopping of about 12 kilometer long farm road that connects the people of Orong to the national highway was addressed as a top priority by the past government. They said that for the last five years they have been waiting to see the road black-topped.
“Now five years is over and the condition of the farm road is very bad, vehicles cannot ply during the summer,” a dissatisfied voter in Orong said. She said that the farm road serves as the essential route for many villages and so lives of the people in Orong gewog is difficult during summer.
With the 10th Five Year Plan coming to an end in the next month, communities shared that they are disappointed that the pledges made by the past government will not be accomplished at all.
Moreover, in what could be a real stab to the old government, the DPT Tshogpa, retired and ceased to support the party, dissatisfied that his village did not receive any of the crucial benefits from the party whom he had supported into power in 2008.
He said that he was a party Tshogpa until May 27, and he has decided to switch to different party as his village did not benefit much from important developmental activities. Further, he said that the village was as good as being neglected.
Another voter, a 45-year-old from Orong said that the people had so many expectations from the past government, and about 40 households would have been benefited if the rope ways had been constructed as promised. He said that the people take hours to walk to the nearest road point and this, the past government has ignored.
He also said that the villages under Orong gewog are way behind in terms of development. “People are still poor, and now they are disappointed as the tenure for DPT ended without much outcome,” he said.
He also said that pledges made by the representative during their campaign in 2008 were forgotten after coming into power and the representatives do not even remember what they promised to fulfill.
