Dr Tobgyel shoots off Loseling

Yesterday, four matches were played in the ongoing basket ball tourney of the schools of Thimphu Thromde.

In the first match, Loseling Middle Secondary School girls popularly known as Changjiji school girls played against the Dr Tobgyel team and  saw Dr Tobgyel beating Loseling 12-4.

But in…

Now the crisis is in the kitchen

Bhutanese kitchens are getting harder by the day to run.

From imported rice to imported vegetables to imported meat, the buying of groceries till it is laid out on the table ready to consume is one mad cycle.

Especially with the country facing an economic crisis which could have been prevented had the authorities been wiser and the people thriftier.

The rupee saga has come a long way since the start of…

Three crises that created the Rupee crisis

Over the years I have observed one important character of the Bhutanese people, i.e “artificiality”.

Everything is artificial. Look at the land value. Artificial inflation. the land value around the country is being excessively / artificially increased way beyond the actual value. Just as an example, if tomorrow the government wishes to move some of our corporate head offices and other developmental activities like Edn. city, medical college and others…

Wrong diagnoses ails!

A 35-year old woman had pain in her leg and was operated on in the Thimphu Hospital.

A few days later, her back swelled up so she had to undergo a second surgery. Her body started to dysfunction after that and she had a problem going to the bathroom. This kept her bed-ridden for three months.

One of her relatives said traditional medicine and hot spring soaks eased the pain to…

Cutting down on poll day costs may create confusion at grass roots

If the Election Commission of Bhutan decides to club the poll day for the National Assembly (NA) and National Council (NC) together, it may not bode well for the conduct of free and fair elections, say some critics.

The commission had said that doing so would save Nu 184 mn from the government coffers but according to  a researcher,  with 80% of voters consisting of illiterate villagers, the idea seemed…

Budget constraints lead to farm road spill over

On 8 Feb the construction of a 175-km long farm road began in Ngedrupchu village under Chuba gewog, Punakha. It is expected to benefit 50 households of the village who otherwise had to walk two to three hours to the nearest road point. The village also does not have electricity. However, the Nu 1 mn budget which had been allocated for the road as part of the 10th five…

National Speaker talks on democracy

On 3 April, the National Speaker, Jigme Tshultim gave a speech on the workings of a democracy and how laws  have been implemented and enacted so far. The meeting was held at the Dzongkhag Tshogdu hall at Damphu, Tsirang.  It was attended by Dzongkhag sector heads, Gewog Administration Officers (GAO), Gups, Mangmis,  Wangdi and Tsirang NC members along with police officers and Drangpons. “The meeting was very informative, educative,”…

Bridge needed for villagers

About 206 toilets have been built for every household in Goshing gewog since the start of the 10th Five Year Plan. Besides this, electricity poles were also fixed in the gewog. However, despite these developmental works, a major problem being faced by the villagers is that there is no bridge for vehicles on the Gongphu-Pangbang highway, only a mule track. The bridge which has to be built over Mangdechhu…

Training Tshogpas on local governance

The Tshogpas from Wangchang, Lungnyi  Hungrel, and Shapa will gather at the gewog conference hall in Wangchang geog today for a discussion with the Department of Local Governance (DoLG). They will be joined by their Gewog Administrative Officers. The tshogpas will be briefed about their responsibilities towards their respective chiwogs. This initiative is being taken by the DoLG especially to promote the efficiency and to maximize the participation of…

Preparing schools for disasters

Currently, 36 participants from 31 schools across Lhuentse are attending a six-day workshop on Disaster Preparedness and Response for Safe School, organized by the Department of Disaster Management (DDM).

Apart from Lhuentse, DDM  has targeted four other dzongkhags for the training programme:  Sarpang, Tsirang, Trashi Yangtse, and Paro.

According to the organizer of the workshop, Keshap Moktan from DDM, the students and faculty members have mock drill sessions which are very…