15 tiger-related wildlife crimes were reported last year

Yangyel Lhaden

The Department of Forests and Park Services (DoFPS) recorded 15 wildlife crimes involving tigers last year, with cases related to illegal trade of tiger bones and skins.

Of these, eight offenders are currently serving prison sentences ranging from one to five years, while seven cases are under prosecution.

In 2021, 16 offenders involved in tiger bone and skin cases were recorded, with offenders serving prison terms ranging from one to five years. No illegal wildlife case was recorded in 2020 due to Covid-19, according to DoFPS.

Hunting, killing, capturing, or collecting any protected species of wild animals or plants is illegal, as per section 490 of the Penal Code of Bhutan 2004.

Tigers, one of Bhutan’s flagship species, are classified as a totally protected species under the Forest and Nature Conservation Rules and Regulations of Bhutan 2017. Any offense against these protected species is graded as a fourth-degree felony under the Penal Code.

The rise in wildlife crimes is not limited to tigers alone. The DoFPS records show a steady increase in wildlife crimes since 2021, with 1,318 crimes reported last year, compared to 1,284 in 2022, 1,264 in 2021, and 1,917 in 2020.

The most common offenses between 2020 and 2023 were illegal timber extraction, illegal harvesting of non-wood forest products, and illegal fishing.

In the same period, the DoFPS collected more than Nu 133 million in fines for wildlife crimes. Illegal timber extraction alone accounted for Nu 94 million, followed by Nu 6.7 million for aquatic and fishing violations, and Nu three million for timber misuse.

Additional fines included Nu 2.1 million for illegal non-wood forest products, Nu 1.9 million for wildlife and poaching, and Nu 5.3 million for land-related offenses, among others.

A DoFPS official said that wildlife crime, including poaching and illegal trafficking, had far-reaching impacts on the ecosystem and the nation at large. “Wildlife crime contributes to significant biodiversity loss, threatens ecosystem function with over-exploitation, risk of extinction of endangered species and risk of spread of zoonotic diseases.”

Globally, poaching, trafficking, and the consumption of tiger bones for medicinal use in Asia remain significant issues, with illegal trade impacting jaguars and lions, according to the World Wildlife Crime Report (WWCR) 2024.

Globally, wildlife crime is one of the most lucrative crimes run by sophisticated, international, and well-organised criminal networks. The high rewards and low risks of illegal wildlife trade and the minimal investment required by offenders are reasons why peopel commit wildlife crimes.

Despite gaps in knowledge about the full extent of wildlife trafficking and associated crime, there is sufficient evidence to conclude that it remains a significant global problem far from being resolved, the WWCR states.

The WWCR calls for policy interventions to combat wildlife crimes, including community engagement, investigative follow-up, corruption control, prosecutorial support, consumer demand reduction, and inter-agency cooperation.

In Bhutan, the DoFPS employs a comprehensive strategy to combat wildlife crime, including capacity building for frontline officials, collaboration with governmental and non-governmental organisations, and use of technologies such as drones for monitoring.

In additon, the National Wildlife Crime Control Committee and National Zero Poaching Strategy also play crucial roles in these efforts.

“We operate within a robust legal framework and conduct extensive anti-poaching patrolling in hotspot areas, which aims to address poaching, illegal wildlife trade, and human-wildlife conflict, ensuring sustainable conservation practices and adherence to international commitments and conventions,” the DoFPS official said.

Conservation efforts have led to a marked increase in wild tiger population in the country, sharply increasing from 103 in 2015 to 131 in 2023. However, this success has also brought challenges, with 580 cases of human-tiger conflicts reported between 2020 and 2024.

Thinley Namgay

The curtain has finally fallen on the long drawn legal battle between Bhutan National Bank (BNB) and private individual Penjore over loan repayment default for the latter’s hotel in Bumthang.

The Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s decision on July 11, dismissing Penjore’ petition to the apex court requesting for the review of Bumthang Dzongkhag’s court’s judgement in 2016.

The Bumthang Dzongkhag Court had ordered Penjore to repay the loan that he availed of from BNB for the hotel construction. That judgement states that Penjore did not pay any loan until February 2016, which amounted to Nu 25.268 million, including principal and interest amount.

The Dzongkhag court had ordered Penjore to repay the loans within three months of issuing the verdict, failing which, BNB could auction the mortgaged land and properties to recuperate the money. The hotel had remained closed since 2016 as the case was subjudice.

BNB tried to auction Penjore’s Bumthang hotel and other mortgaged properties yesterday. However, due to the minimal number of bidders and low prices offered by these bidders, BNB decided to re-auction the properties at a more favourable time in the future.

BNB officials said that as per the Court’s decision, the ownership of the hotel was transferred to BNB a few years back after Penjore refused to pay the loans. The rate of the mortgaged properties were calculated and set by the Court and the case has been already settled, BNB officials said.    

Based on Penjore’s  petition to revisit the decisions of the lower courts, the Supreme Court  reviewed the case based on section 31.2 of the Civil and Criminal Procedure Code (CCPC) of Bhutan 2021. The section states  that a petitioner should have legal standing and the petition must involve a concrete case or controversy.    

The Supreme Court dismissed the case based on section 32.1 of the CCPC. The section states that the court will make an initial determination whether sufficient legal cause exists to admit the case for proceedings according to the law, hear the case within the prescribed period, or give written reasons, if the petition of a party is dismissed.

Chencho Dema

Punakha—The recent cordyceps auction at Chhoekor Gewog Centre saw a kilogramme of high-quality cordyceps fetch Nu 3.341 million.

Held from July 15 to July 18, the lowest bid at this year’s auction was Nu 565,000 per kilogramme.

Last year, the highest bid reached Nu 4.3 million, while the lowest was Nu 680,000. The auction saw 31 bidders last year.

The total cordyceps collection in Bumthang increased to 70.57 kilogrammes this year, up from 49 kilogrammes last year. In 2022, 88.2 kilogrammes were collected.

Of the 70.57 kilogrammes of cordyceps collected, 39.68 kilogrammes were sold during the auction while seller withdrew 30.89 kilogrammes, hoping for better prices at other auction venues.

The auction was organised for the two gewogs of Chhoekor and Chumey. Although 42 bidders had registered, only 21 of them turned up to participate at the auction.

The senior marketing officer of the Department of Agricultural Marketing and Cooperatives (DAMC), Ram Bdr Lama, said that the average price for cordyceps was better this year, although prices were higher last year. “Some sellers withdrew from the auction with hopes of earning more money.”

Buyers have been moving between different auction venues in search of better prices. This year, 510 permits were issued for cordyceps collection in Chhoekor and 778 in Chumey, compared to 601 permits issued last year.

Despite the higher number of permits in Chumey gewog, there were fewer sellers from the area. “This is a common trend. Perhaps, permit holders did not harvest or they chose to sell their cordyceps at other auction sites,” Ram Bdr Lama said.

The forest department collected Nu 600,000 in royalties this year, up from Nu 412,574 last year but down from Nu 741,694 in 2022.

Cordyceps auctions were suspended in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic while the first lockdown disrupted the 2020 auction. However, DAMC managed to hold an auction for Wangdue dzongkhag collectors in 2020. In 2021, DAMC organised an auction for Bumthang collectors at their request.

The next auction is will be held in Dangchu and Sephu gewogs, followed by Kazhi gewog in Wangdue, Khatoed and Tashithang in Gasa, Tshento in Paro, Lingzhi and Naro in Thimphu, and Bumdeling in Trashiyangtse.

Neten Dorji

Samrang — Samrang gewog in Samdrupjongkhar not only shares an open border with the Indian town in Assam but also the same name. Yet, it has taken ages to construct a formal checkpoint to connect these two neighbouring border towns.

The Royal Bhutan Police personnel man the current border crossing, which constitutes an ordinary iron gate flanked by a watchtower outpost and a few houses. In its place, an integrated checkpoint is what people of the four gewogs in Samdrupcholing dungkhag, Samdrupjongkhar, are asking for.

Samrang residents said that without an integrated check post, border crossing has become difficult, particularly with restrictions on entry and exit of motor vehicles. 

Business owners said that restrictions on vehicle movement has cause unnecessary hassle and increased transportation cost. 

Rinzin, a businessman, said the restriction on vehicle movement through the check post was enforced after Covid-19, which has affected small businesses in the four gewogs.

“Now, we have to route everything through the Samdrupjongkhar gate. This has significantly increased the distance and expenses for shopkeepers in the locality,” he said.

M.B Gurung, formal gup said that due to the restrictions at the Samrang checkpoint, farmers are forced to take their cash crops for export via Samdrupjongkhar, which increases the cost of transportation. “If we have an official checkpoint here, the market is just a few kilometres away.”

The problem gets further compounded during medical emergencies when people have to take patients to Guwahati in Assam, resorting to hiring of Indian vehicles.

Many Bhutanese also park cars right outside the border as a measure for unforeseen emergencies.

Guwahati is around 67 kilometres away from Samrang.

Samrang Gup Jigme Singye Drukpa said that the establishment of an integrated check post, with relevant agencies such as immigration office, Bhutan Food and Drug Authority and Police under one roof, would facilitate movement of people and goods.

He said that the gewog do not have the authority to establish an immigration office and other infrastructure independently. “Such initiatives must be routed through the government. We have made this requests several times.”

A feasibility study on the check post has also been carried out and the report submitted to the government.

A resident of Samrang said that a formal route through Samrang will boost trade between the two countries and bolster the local economy. “There are many mining sites in Samrang and it will benefit the community.”

Speaking to Kuensel, an official from the Department of Law and Order said that a proposal on the establishment of a formal trade route in Samrang has been shared with the Government of India through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade.

“Initially, we had proposed a trade route from Barakun, opposite to Jomotshangkha, but we proposed the establishment of a permanent trade route from Samrang after finding it more feasible. It is currently under process,” said the official.

Lhakpa Quendren

Sarpang—With over 600 mushroom species in the country, wild mushroom foraging is a popular activity but this also leads to increasing incidents of mushroom poisoning, if figures are any indication. 

Over the past three decades, Bhutan has recorded 26 deaths and 76 recoveries from mushroom poisoning.

The highest number of mushroom poisoning incident was reported in 2019, with 16 cases, followed by 13 in 2009 and 12 in 2012.

More than 100 species of mushrooms are poisonous, with many still unexplored.

Despite numerous awareness programmes, mushroom poisoning incidents continue, according to the National Mushroom Centre (NMC).

While people have been foraging mushrooms for generations, mushroom experts warn that some wild mushrooms, which resemble well-known edible varieties, can be highly toxic and pose serious health risks if consumed.

The Program Director of NMC said that the knowledge about mushrooms is still evolving, as it is a vast area. “Even lifelong mycologists can be poisoned if not cautious. So, it is no surprise that ordinary foragers with limited knowledge of mushrooms often get poisoned,” he said.

Misidentification of mushrooms often stems from either a lack of knowledge or the deceptive similarities between toxic and edible species.

The Senior Mushroom Supervisor at NMC, Sabitra Pradhan, said that incidents frequently occur among people resettling in new areas. “Migrants might mistakenly consume a similar-looking mushroom, which is poisonous,” she explained.

Other contributing factors include carelessness or overconfidence among foragers and inadequate awareness at the community level.

While mushrooms are becoming more popular, limited research budget hampers studies on myco-diversity, and public awareness.

Experts advise collectors to refrain from consuming unknown mushrooms, as accurate identification often requires microscopic examination or DNA analysis.

Some mushroom poisoning take time to manifest symptoms, leading to delayed treatment and potential organ damage. In some instances, mushroom poisoning symptoms can be confused with common illnesses like food poisoning or other similar conditions. These symptoms range from mild gastrointestinal discomfort to severe poisoning, and in some cases, death.

Dechen Dolkar

The police on July 8 arrested a 52-year-old father and his 24-year-old son in a case related to raiding and slaughtering cattle.

Seven cattle were reported missing from Khasakha and Langdru villages of Mewang Gewog in Thimphu.

Villagers claim that cattle were raided from the barn and pastureland where they were tethered.

The suspects, originally from Samtse, currently reside in Langdru where they own a pig farm.

According to police, there have been previous incidents and complaints about cattle disappearing from the village.

Recently, a villager reported the disappearance of his cattle to the police. Since the suspect was already under surveillance, the police immediately went to check his house upon receiving the complaint.

Police found fresh beef, approximately 307 kilogrammes, inside the suspect’s house.

Pema Choden from Khasakha village lost two cows on the same night.

She said the cattle were tethered in the shed in the evening, but when she went to feed them in the morning, the shed was empty.

“Both my cows were pregnant. Each used to give around 10 litres of milk per day,” she said. It has been 12 days since the cows disappeared.

Another villager from Khasakha, Phuntsho, lost a bull a month ago. It was found at the suspect’s place and was returned. Recently, the same bull went missing.

Phuntsho said the suspect had slaughtered his bull.

“When I went to the police station, the police showed me a photo of a slaughtered cattle head. It was my bull, which I recognised from the horns,” Phuntsho said.

The Bhutan Food and Drug Authority has also imposed a penalty of Nu 209,940 on the suspects for illegal slaughter and sale of meat. The authority has disposed of all the meat.

The police are investigating the case.

The Technical Training Institute (TTI) in Thimphu celebrated a significant milestone yesterday with the inauguration of its new campus in Serbithang.

The Minister for Education and Skills Development and the Country Director of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Bhutan Resident Mission inaugurated the celebration.

The ceremony was attended by department heads from the ministry, project partners and stakeholders, including representatives from the Automobile Service Association of Bhutan.

Constructed at the cost of Nu. 419.20 million on 6.77-acres land, the infrastructure development aligns with the Place Transformation Theme under the TVET Reform Plan.

This development is expected to provide an enhanced facelift to the image of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). The challenges faced by the institute currently in terms of low student intake due to unavailability of boarding facilities is expected to be resolved with the provision of full boarding facilities on the new campus that can accommodate 304 students including 88 females.

The new automobile workshop, administration, and academic buildings, will also house the general administration, laboratories, classrooms and indoor sports facility besides the spacious workshop area for automobile practical classes.

With these facilities and upgraded technologies, the institute would be able to introduce high level TVET programmes in automobile, heating ventilation and air conditioning, and graphic design.   

The new campus infrastructure construction began in March 2020 with fund support by the ADB and the Royal Government of Bhutan.

Dr Tshering Cigay Dorji (PhD), commissioner of the Royal Civil Service Commission (RCSC), talks with reporter Dechen Dolkar about digital transformation within the RCSC in the 13th Five-Year Plan. In the 13th plan, the government has allocated Nu 10 billion for digital transformation, out of which Nu 5,148.19 million will be invested in strengthening digital governance.

As the first commissioner appointed from outside the civil service, what specific reforms do you plan to introduce within the RCSC to align with the digital transformation goals of the 13th Five Year Plan?

As the first commissioner appointed from outside the civil service, I find experiencing the system from inside for the first time quite fascinating. The Civil Service is a huge system composed of many sub-systems. So, it has to have many rules and regulations. In general, I find these rules quite progressive and have been put in place to uphold the principles of meritocracy, transparency and fairness. Given my background, I try to bring corporate perspectives to the commission. For instance, we need to ensure that the processes are there to help us achieve the outcome we desire. We will streamline rules and processes where necessary.  Under the leadership of our Chairperson, the commission has started our work with an open mindset to work collaboratively with our civil servants, especially the executives, to collectively enhance the skills and professionalism, and nurture new talents in keeping with the fast paced developments happening globally. Civil servants have a crucial role in delivering our 13th Plan and help achieve the vision of a developed Bhutan.

As for the 13th Plan, Bhutan has an ambitious digital transformation goal with a budget outlay of Nu. 10 Billion underpinned by the vision of ‘Intelligent Bhutan’. More than half of this budget is set aside for Digital Governance. The RCSC’s objectives of enhancing professionalism and improving productivity and efficiency in the civil service align very well with the Government’s plan of optimizing government operations, reducing costs, and promoting intelligent governance practices. Given my professional background and experience, I would like to work from within RCSC to support the Government in these initiatives.

How do you foresee these reforms improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the civil service?

The budget of Nu 10 Billion is perhaps the largest ever budget that the IT sector has received. This has come at the right time as Bhutan is at the crossroads today. We have just graduated from the LDC status, and we have set our eyes on becoming a high income GNH nation. The way we do things from hereon should be on a higher standard. By harnessing the power of technologies to re-engineer processes in the bureaucracy and automating them wherever possible, there is no doubt that the efficiency and the effectiveness of the civil service can be enhanced.

With your extensive IT background, how do you envision Bhutan’s digital transformation initiative in the 13th plan contributing to the nation’s goal of becoming a high-income GNH economy?

Today, the world is driven largely by digital technologies. It touches all aspects of our lives. Digital sector is not only an economic sector and industry in itself, but also an enabler of all other sectors. So, the digital transformation initiatives are indispensable for achieving our goal of becoming a high income GNH economy.

Digital governance is a major focus of the 13th plan with an investment of Nu 5,148.19 million. What specific strategies and technologies do you plan to implement to enhance public service delivery and revolutionize government operations?

We will work closely with the Government, among others, to optimise and re-engineer public service delivery processes and systems, automate routine tasks, consolide systems, improve data integration and quality, and facilitate data-driven decision-making.

One of the aims of digital governance is to enhance efficiency and citizen satisfaction through technology-driven solutions. Can you provide examples of how these solutions will be applied in practice within the civil service?

We have already seen how automating service delivery through online platforms, such as online tax returns filing and payment, bill payments, license renewals etc. can improve public service delivery and efficiency. We will focus on building on these and taking automation to the next level by conducting comprehensive reviews of existing processes to identify inefficiencies and areas for improvement.

What is your long-term vision for integrating technology into the civil service, and how can RCSC foster a culture of continuous learning and adaptation among civil servants to keep pace with technological

advancements?

Enhancing the skills, competencies and professionalism of our civil servants is one of the key focus areas of the commission. We will facilitate and encourage all civil servants to become lifelong learners to keep themselves relevant. Doing so is not difficult given all the online resources available as long as one has the mindset to keep learning and improving. On our part, we will include trainings on new trends and technologies as part of our regular HR development and training programmes.

Thukten Zangpo

With 97 percent of the 1,020MW Punatsangchhu-II Hydroelectric Project Authority (PHPA-II) completed, the plant is likely to begin operations by August 15 this year.

“If everything goes according to plan, we aim to commission two units within August and the remaining four units by the end of this year,” according to officials from the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources.

There are six units, each with a capacity of 170 MW. Commissioning two units by August would have the capacity of 340 MW.

Once commissioned (six units), PHPA-II will generate 4,357 million units of electricity annually.

A ministry official said that the project faced many challenges related to construction, leading to significant delays. The delay, he said,  was compounded by the outbreak of Covid-19 which hampered the progress by almost two years.

“After easing of lockdown measures in the country, the pace of construction has increased significantly. The physical progress of the project has reached 97 percent,” he said.

The construction of PHPA-II began in 2010 and was supposed to be completed in 2017. However, a massive landslide struck the powerhouse in 2016.

As for revenue generation, a ministry official said that the tariff discussion with the government of India was underway.

The cost of completion is expected to be Nu 94.46 billion. The official said that the financial progress of the project as of now was around 90 percentPHPA-II was constructed with the financial modality of 30 percent grant and 70 percent loan from the Government of India.

As of March this year, hydro-debt stood at Nu 167.5 billion, 64.1 percent of the total external debt (Nu 261.12 billion).

According to the finance ministry, the hydropower debt is considered low risk as debt servicing for hydropower loans from India starts only a year after the commissioning of the projects, which ensures revenue inflow before debt servicing starts.

Electricity export tariff is calculated based on the projects’ overall cost, including the projected debt servicing cost, which ensures that the revenue from the sale of electricity provides adequate cushion for debt servicing.

All hydropower projects are insured and reinsured against natural risks. The uninsured debt pertains to hydrological risks.

According to the finance ministry, hydropower projects are deemed commercially viable, with a secured export market in India. Moreover, 91.1 percent of the hydro debt is denominated in INR, which does not pose any exchange rate risks due to the currency peg.

༉ འཆར་གཞི་༡༣ པའི་ནང་ འཆར་དངུལ་ཡོངས་བསྡོམས་ དངུལ་ཀྲམ་ཐེར་འབུམ་༤.༧༧ དེ་ཅིག་ བགོ་བཀྲམ་འབད་ཡོདཔ་ལས་ རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ནང་ ལམ་སྲོལ་གོང་འཕེལ་ རྒྱ་ཆ་དྲགས་སྦེ་ར་ གཏང་ཚུགས་ནི་ཨིན་པས།
འཆར་དངུལ་དེ་ཡང་ འཆར་གཞི་༡༢ པའི་ནང་ འཆར་དངུལ་དངུལ་ཀྲམ་ཐེར་འབུམ་༢.༥༦ བགོ་བཀྲམ་འབད་མི་ལས་ ད་རེས་ བརྒྱ་ཆ་༥༥ དེ་ཅིག་ ཡར་སེང་འབད་ནུག།
གནད་དོན་དེ་ ཐིམ་ཕུག་ལུ་སྦེ་ ས་གནས་གཞུང་གི་ འགོ་དཔོན་ཚུ་དང་ འཆར་གཞི་༡༣ པ་ ལག་ལེན་གྱི་ མཉམ་འབྲེལ་ཞལ་འཛོམས་འཚོགས་པའི་སྐབས་ལུ་ གསལ་བསྒྲགས་འབད་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།
སྲོལ་འཛིན་དང་རྫོང་ཁ་གོང་འཕེལ་ལས་ཁུངས་དང་ གྲྭ་ཚང་ལྷན་ཚོགས་༢ ཀྱིས་ འཆར་གཞི་ཚུ་ ལག་ལེན་འཐབ་ནི་ཨིནམ་ད་ འཆར་དངུལ་ཡོངས་བསྡོམས་ལས་ དངུལ་ཀྲམ་ཐེར་འབུམ་༣.༨༥༢ སྲོལ་འཛིན་དང་རྫོང་ཁ་གོང་འཕེལ་ལས་ཁུངས་དང་ དངུལ་ཀྲམ་ས་ཡ་༩༤༧ དེ་ གྲྭ་ཚང་ལྷན་ཚོགས་ལུ་ བགོ་བཀྲམ་འབད་ནུག།
འཆར་དངུལ་དེ་ རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ནང་ སྲོལ་རྒྱུན་ས་ཁོངས་གོང་འཕེལ་དང་ ཉེན་སྲུང་གི་དོན་ལུ་ ལག་ལེན་འཐབ་ནི་ཨིན་པའི་ཁར་ འབྲུག་པའི་རང་ལུགས་ལམ་སྲོལ་ཚུ་ ལྷན་ཐབས་འབད་ནི་ལུ་ཡང་ ལག་ལེན་འཐབ་ནི་ཨིན་པས།
སྤྱི་ལོ་༢༠༢༣ གྱི་ནང་འཁོད་ལུ་ སྲོལ་འཛིན་དང་རྫོང་ཁ་གོང་འཕེལ་ལས་ཁུངས་ཀྱིས་ རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ཀྱི་ སྲོལ་རྒྱུན་ས་ཁོངས་༢,༡༦༥ དེ་ཅིག་ ཡིག་ཆ་བཟོ་སྟེ་ བཞག་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།
འཆར་དངུལ་ཚུ་ རྒྱ་ཆེ་དྲགས་སྦེ་ར་ ཡར་སེང་འབད་རུང་ ས་གནས་གཞུང་གི་ འགོ་དཔོན་ཚུ་གིས་ འཆར་དངུལ་ཚུ་ རྫོང་ཁག་སོ་སོར་བར་ན་ བགོ་བཀྲམ་འབད་མི་ལུ་ སེམས་དང་མ་ལྡན་པའི་སྐོར་ལས་ བཤད་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།
ས་གནས་གཞུང་གི་ འགོ་ཁྲིདཔ་ལ་ལོ་ཅིག་གིས་ རྫོང་ཁག་ལ་ལོ་ཅིག་ འཆར་དངུལ་ཚུ་ སྦོམ་སྦེ་ར་ ཐོབ་ཡོདཔ་ད་ འཆར་གཞི་༡༣ པའི་ནང་ ཉེན་སྲུང་དང་ གལ་ཅན་གྱི་ སྲོལ་རྒྱུན་གྱི་ ས་ཁོངས་ཚུ་ མ་ཚུད་པར་ཡོདཔ་ལས་ གཙོ་རིམ་གྱི་ བྱ་སྒོའི་སྐོར་ལས་ དྲི་དཔྱད་འབད་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།
འགོ་དཔོན་ཚུ་གིས་ མཐུན་རྐྱེན་ཚུ་ ལག་ལེན་དངོས་ལྟར་དང་ འདྲ་མཉམ་ངེས་བརྟན་གྱི་དོན་ལུ་ ས་གནས་གཞུང་གི་ གནས་ཚད་ལས་ཡང་ ནང་འདེབས་འབད་དེ་ འཆར་གཞི་བཟོ་དགོཔ་སྦེ་ཨིན་པས།
རྒཔོ་མང་ཤོས་ཅིག་གིས་ སྲོལ་འཛིན་དང་རྫོང་ཁ་གོང་འཕེལ་ལས་ཁུངས་དང་ གྲྭ་ཚང་ལྷན་ཚོགས་ལུ་ འཆར་གཞི་དང་ འཆར་དངུལ་བགོ་བཀྲམ་ཚུ་ ལོག་བལྟ་དགོཔ་སྦེ་ ཞུ་བ་འབད་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།
རྒཔོ་ཚུ་གིས་ ཧེ་མ་ གནང་བྱིན་མ་དངུལ་ལས་ སྲོལ་རྒྱུན་གྱི་ས་ཁོངས་ཚུ་ བཟོ་སྐྲུན་དང་ རྒྱུན་སྐྱོང་འཐབ་ནི་ལུ་ ས་གནས་གཞུང་གི་དབང་ཆ་ཚུ་ འཐོབ་མ་ཚུགས་ཟེར་ཨིན་པས།
སྲོལ་འཛིན་དང་རྫོང་ཁ་གོང་འཕེལ་ལས་ཁུངས་དང་ གྲྭ་ཚང་ལྷན་ཚོགས་ལས་ འགོ་དཔོན་ཚུ་གིས་ སླབ་མིའི་ནང་ འཆར་གཞི་ཚུ་ཡང་ རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་དཔལ་འབྱོར་དང་ འབྲེལ་ཡོད་རྫོང་ཁག་ཚུ་ལས་ གྲོས་འཆར་ལྷོད་མི་དང་འཁྲིལ་ཏེ་ བཟོ་ཡོད་རུང་ འགོ་དཔོན་ཚུ་གིས་ འཆར་གཞི་ཚུ་ ལོག་བསྐྱར་ཞིབ་འབད་ནི་ལུ་ ཁས་ལེན་འབད་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།
སྲོལ་འཛིན་དང་རྫོང་ཁ་གོང་འཕེལ་ལས་ཁུངས་ནང་ ལམ་སྲོལ་སྲོལ་རྒྱུན་དེ་ མི་སྡེ་གཅིག་མཐུན་དང་ རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཀྱི་ངོ་རྟགས་ དེ་ལས་ དཔལ་འབྱོར་གོང་འཕེལ་གཏང་ནིའི་ འཆར་གཞི་ཚུ་ ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།
ལས་འགུལ་སྦོམ་གཞན་ཡང་ དངུལ་ཀྲམ་ས་ཡ་༥༢༢ གནས་པའི་ གསར་སྤང་རྫོང་གསར་བཞེངས་དང་ རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་འཆམ་དང་ཟློས་གར་སློབ་སྦྱོང་སྤེལ་ཁང་ གཞི་བཙུགས་དོན་ལུ་ དངུལ་ཀྲམ་ས་ཡ་༥༠༠ རྒྱལ་སྲུང་ལྷ་ཁང་བཞེངས་ནིའི་དོན་ལུ་ དངུལ་ཀྲམ་ས་ཡ་༤༦༨ དེ་ལས་ རྟ་མགོ་རྫོང་བསྐྱར་བཞེངས་དོན་ལུ་ དངུལ་ཀྲམ་ས་ཡ་༣༧༦.༠༨ བགོ་བཀྲམ་འབད་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།
ལས་ཁུངས་ཀྱི་ འགོ་དཔོན་ཚུ་གིས་ བཤད་མིའི་ནང་ ཆོས་སྡེ་ལྷན་ཚོགས་ནང་ ཐོ་བཀོད་འབད་མི་དང་ མི་སྡེའི་ནང་ ཕན་ཐོགས་བྱུང་མི་ སྒེར་གྱི་ལྷ་ཁང་ཚུ་ལུ་ འཆར་གཞི་ཡོད་མེད་དང་འཁྲིལ་ཏེ་ རྒྱབ་སྐྱོར་དང་ ས་གནས་གཞུང་གིས་ གཙོ་རིམ་བསྒྲིག་ནི་ཨིན་པས།
ལས་ཁུངས་ཀྱིས་ ལུང་ཕྱོགས་ནང་ མཐུན་རྐྱེན་མེད་མི་ཚུ་ཡང་ གཙོ་རིམ་བསྒྲིག་ནིའི་འཆར་གཞི་ཡོདཔ་ད་ རྫོང་དང་ ལྷ་ཁང་ཚུ་ལས་ འཆར་དངུལ་ཁ་སྐོང་དགོས་མཁོ་དང་ ལག་ལེན་འཐབ་སྟེ་ ལོ་༢ ལང་མི་ གྲོས་འཆར་བཀོད་མི་ཚུ་ཡང་ གློ་བུར་མ་འབྱུང་པ་ཅིན་ ལོག་གཙོ་རིམ་སྒྲིག་ནི་ཨིན་པས།
ལས་ཁུངས་ཀྱི་ འགོ་དཔོན་ཚུ་གིས་ བཤད་མིའི་ནང་ སྲོལ་རྒྱུན་གྱི་ས་ཁོངས་ནང་ གློག་མེ་བཙུག་སྒྲིག་གི་ ལཱ་མ་འབད་བའི་ཧེ་མར་ ལས་ཁུངས་དང་གཅིག་ཁར་ གྲོས་བསྟུན་འབད་དགོཔ་ད་ གྲྭ་ཚང་ལྷན་ཚོགས་ནང་ འཆར་དངུལ་དངུལ་ཀྲམ་ས་ཡ་༩༤༧ བགོ་བཀྲམ་འབད་མི་ལས་ དངུལ་ཀྲམ་ས་ཡ་༨༩༧ གཞི་རྟེན་གོང་ཕེལ་གཏང་ནི་ལུ་ བགོ་བཀྲམ་དང་ དངུལ་ཀྲམ་ས་ཡ་༥༠ པོ་དེ་ གཞན་ལས་སྣ་ཚུ་འབད་ནིའི་དོན་ལུ་ བཞག་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།
གཞི་རྟེན་མཐུན་རྐྱེན་གོང་འཕེལ་གཏང་ནིའི་ འཆར་དངུལ་ཡོངས་བསྡོམས་ དངུལ་ཀྲམ་ས་ཡ་༨༩༧ བགོ་བཀྲམ་འབད་མི་ལས་ མཐོ་ཤོས་ར་ ཐིམ་ཕུག་ལུ་ དངུལ་ཀྲམ་ས་ཡ་༢༣༠ དང་ དེ་གི་ཤུལ་ལས་ ཧཱ་ལུ་ དངུལ་ཀྲམ་ས་ཡ་༡༤༧.༡ བགོ་བཀྲམ་འབད་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།
འཆར་དངུལ་ཉུང་ཤོས་ར་ མགར་ས་ལུ་ དངུལ་ཀྲམ་ས་ཡ་༥.༥༧ དང་ བཀྲིས་གཡང་རྩེ་ལུ་ དངུལ་ཀྲམ་ས་ཡ་༡༡.༢ བགོ་བཀྲམ་འབད་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།
གྲྭ་ཚང་ལྷན་ཚོགས་ཀྱིས་ འཆར་གཞི་༡༣ པའི་ནང་ འཆར་གཞི་ལས་སྣ་༡༢༣ ཡོདཔ་ད་ ཨིན་རུང་ མི་སྡེའི་ལྷ་ཁང་དང་ རྒན་ཤོས་ལྟེ་བ་ གནམ་བྱཱར་དགུན་གྱི་བཞུགས་གནས་ མགྲོན་ཁྱིམ་ མི་སྡེའི་ཞབས་ཏོག་ལྟེ་བ་ བཟོ་སྐྲུན་དང་འབྲེལ་བའི་ལས་འགུལ་ཚུ་ འཆར་གཞི་ནང་ཚུད་དེ་ མེད་པའི་གནས་ཚུལ།
ཨོ་རྒྱན་རྡོ་རྗེ།

༉ དམིགས་བསལ་དུ་ ཤེས་རིག་དང་རིག་རྩལ་གོང་འཕེལ་ལྷན་ཁག་ནང་ ཞི་གཡོགཔ་དགོངས་ཞུའི་གྱངས་ཁ་མཐོ་ཤོས་ཡོདཔ་ལས་ རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་སློབ་སྟོན་ཞབས་ཏོག་ལུ་ རང་དབང་གི་དགོས་མཁོ་སྐོར་ལས་ ལྷན་ཁག་གིས་ རྒྱལ་གཞུང་ཞི་གཡོག་ལྷན་ཚོགས་དང་ གྲོས་བསྟུན་འབད་དོ་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།
གནད་དོན་དེ་གི་ཐོག་ལུ་ གྲོས་བསྟུན་འབད་བའི་བསྒང་ཡོདཔ་ལས་ ད་རེས་ དོན་སྨིན་ཅན་གྱི་ གྲོས་ཆོད་ཚུ་ ག་ནི་ཡང་ འབྱུང་མ་ཚུགས་པར་ ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།
ལྷན་ཁག་གིས་ རང་དབང་བཟོ་དགོཔ་དེ་ གཡོག་བཙུགས་དང་ གདམ་འཐུ་ དེ་ལས་ སློབ་སྟོན་དང་འབྲེལ་བའི་ འཛིན་སྐྱོང་གི་ ལཱ་ཚུ་ཨིན་པས།
ཉམས་མྱོང་ཅན་དང་ སྦྱོང་བརྡར་ཅན་གྱི་ སློབ་སྟོན་པ་ཚུ་ དགོངས་ཞུ་འབད་བའི་སྐབས་ སློབ་སྦྱོང་མེད་མི་ཚུ་ ཁག་འབག་ཐོག་ ཚབ་བཙུགས་འབད་དགོཔ་ལས་ ས་གནས་གཞུང་གི་ འགོ་དཔོན་ཚུ་གིས་འབད་བ་ཅིན་ གནད་དོན་དེ་ལུ་ ངོས་ལེན་འབད་ཞིནམ་ལས་་ལམ་ལུགས་དེ་ སེལ་ཐབས་འབད་དགོཔ་ འདུག་ཟེར་ཨིན་པས།
ཐིམ་ཕུག་རྫོང་ཁག་ཚོགས་འདུའི་ཁྲི་འཛིན་ དར་དཀར་ལ་རྒཔོ་ དགའ་མདོག་གིས་ སླབ་མིའི་ནང་ ཤེས་རིག་མཐོ་རིམ་སློབ་གྲྭ་ཚུ་ནང་ ལོ་༤ འི་རིང་ སྦྱོང་བརྡར་འབད་མི་ སློབ་དཔོན་ཚུ་ ལཱ་གཡོག་མེད་པར་ སྡོད་དགོཔ་བྱུང་སྟེ་ འདུག་ཟེར་ཨིན་པས།
ལོ་བསྟར་བཞིན་དུ་ གཞུང་གིས་ སློབ་དཔོན་གྱི་ སྦྱོང་བརྡར་སྤེལ་ཁང་ཚུ་ནང་ སློབ་ཕྲུག་ལེ་ཤ་སྦེ་ ལེན་པའི་མཐའ་མར་ སྦྱོང་བརྡར་མཇུག་བསྡུ་བའི་ཤུལ་ལས་ ག་ར་ སློབ་གྲྭ་ཚུ་ནང་ བགོ་བཀྲམ་མི་འབད་བས་ཟེར་ དགའ་མདོག་གིས་ བཤདཔ་ཨིན་པས།
ཁོ་གིས་འབད་བ་ཅིན་ གོ་སྐབས་ལེགས་ཤོམ་མེདཔ་ལས་ སྦྱོང་བརྡར་ཅན་གྱི་ སློབ་དཔོན་ཚུ་ ཕྱི་རྒྱལ་ལུ་ འགྱོ་དོ་ཡོདཔ་ལས་ དེ་གིས་ གཞུང་ལུ་ གྱོང་རྒུད་སྦོམ་སྦེ་ར་ ཕོགཔ་མས་ཟེར་ཨིན་པས།
དགའ་མདོག་གིས་ ཤེས་རིག་ལྷན་ཁག་ལུ་ ཞི་གཡོག་གི་ ཆོས་རྒྱུགས་ལུ་བརྟེན་ ལཱ་གཡོག་མ་ཐོབ་མི་ སྦྱོང་བརྡར་ཅན་གྱི་ སློབ་སྟོན་པ་ཚུ་ བཙུགས་དགོ་པའི་ཞུ་བ་འབད་ཡོདཔ་ད་ ཡུན་རིངམོ་སྦེ་ སྦྱོང་བརྡར་འབད་མི་དང་ ཁོང་རའི་ཁྱད་རིག་གིས་ རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ནང་ ཁེ་ཕན་སྦོམ་སྦེ་ར་ འབྱུང་ཚུགས་ཟེར་ཨིན་པས།
དེ་བཟུམ་སྦེ་ བསམ་རྩེ་གི་རྫོང་ཁག་ཚོགས་འདུའི་ཁྲི་འཛིན་ བསྟན་འབྲུག་གི་རྒཔོ་ ཉི་མ་འབྲུག་པ་གིས་ སླབ་མིའི་ནང་ སྦྱོང་བརྡར་མེད་པའི་ ཁག་འབགཔ་གི་ སློབ་སྟོན་པ་ཚུ་ལུ་ ཐབས་རིམ་གྱི་ ལམ་སྟོན་དང་ རྒྱབ་སྐྱོར་ཚུ་ དགོཔ་འདུག་ཟེར་ཨིན་པས།
ཁོ་གིས་འབད་བ་ཅིན་ ལྷན་ཁག་གིས་ དུས་ཚོད་ཁར་ དབྱེ་ཞིབ་དང་ ལྟ་རྟོག་གིས་ གཞི་རྟེན་གནས་ཚད་ནང་ ཤེས་རིག་སྤུས་ཚད་ ངེས་བརྟན་བཟོ་ནི་ལུ་ ལྷན་ཐབས་འབྱུང་འོང་ཟེར་ཨིན་པས།
གནད་དོན་དེའི་ཐད་ལུ་ ཤེས་རིག་ལྷན་ཁག་གི་ མི་སྟོབས་གཙོ་འཛིན་ ཉི་མ་དམ་འདུལ་གྱིས་ གལ་སྲིད་ རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་སློབ་སྟོན་འཆར་གཞི་ ཆ་འཇོག་འབད་བ་ཅིན་ ལྷན་ཁག་ལུ་ ད་ལྟོའི་ ལམ་ལུགས་ཡར་དྲག་དང་ སློབ་སྟོན་གྱི་ མི་སྟོབས་ལུ་ཡང་ ལྷན་ཐབས་འབད་ཚུགས་ཟེར་ཨིན་པས།
འཆར་གཞི་དེ་གི་འོག་ལུ་ ཁག་འབགཔ་སློབ་སྟོན་ཚུ་ ཤེས་རིག་མཐོ་རིམ་སློབ་གྲྭ་ཚུ་དང་ མཉམ་འབྲེལ་འབད་ཐོག་ལས་ སྦྱོང་བརྡར་ཚུ་ ཐོབ་ཚུགས་ནི་ཨིན་པས།
གཙུག་ལག་གཞི་རིམ་ཡོད་པའི་ ཁག་འབགཔ་སློབ་སྟོན་ཚུ་ལུ་ གནམ་དགུན་སྐབས་ བསམ་རྩེ་མཐོ་རིམ་སློབ་གྲྭ་ནང་ ཟླཝ་༢ ཀྱི་ སྦྱོང་བརྡར་བྱིན་ནི་དང་ ཁོང་གིས་ སྦྱོང་ཚན་༤ མཇུག་བསྡུ་པའི་ཤུལ་ལས་ ལོ་༢ ཀྱི་ནང་འཁོད་ལུ་ གཙུག་ལག་ཁྱད་རྩལ་ཐོབ་ནིའི་དོན་ལུ་ གནམ་བྱཱར་གྱི་ ངལ་གསོ་སྐབས་ སྦྱང་བ་འབད་དགོ་ཟེར་ མི་སྟོབས་གཙོ་འཛིན་གྱིས་ བཤདཔ་ཨིན་པས།
སློབ་དཔོན་སློབ་སྦྱོང་ནང་ གཙུག་གཞི་རིམ་གྱི་ སྦྱོང་བརྡར་མཐར་འཁྱོལ་མི་ཚུ་ ཞི་གཡོག་ལྷན་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་ ཆོས་རྒྱུགས་རྐྱབ་དགོ་པའི་ཐད་ལུ་ མི་སྟོབས་གཙོ་འཛིན་གྱིས་ སླབ་མིའི་ནང་ ལྷན་ཁག་གིས་ ཞི་གཡོག་ལྷན་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་ ཆོས་རྒྱུགས་དེ་ སློབ་སྟོན་ཞབས་ཏོག་འཆར་གཞི་གི་ སློབ་དཔོན་ ཁྱད་ཡོན་ཚད་གཞི་ བརྟག་དཔྱད་ཆོས་རྒྱུགས་འོག་ལུ་ ཚབ་བཙུགས་འབད་ནི་ལུ་ འཆར་གཞི་བརྩམས་དོ་ཟེར་ཨིན་པས།
ཁོ་གིས་འབད་བ་ཅིན་ སློབ་དཔོན་ཚུ་གིས་ ཞི་གཡོག་གི་ཆོས་རྒྱུགས་ཚབ་སྦེ་ ཁྱད་ཡོན་ཚད་གཞིའི་ བརྟག་དཔྱད་ཆོས་རྒྱུགས་དེ་ རྐྱབ་དགོ་ཟེར་ཨིན་པས།
གནད་དོན་དེ་ འཕྲལ་ཁམས་ཅིག་ཁར་ མཇུག་བསྡུ་མི་ སྤྱི་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་ རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཚོགས་སྡེའི་ ཤེས་རིག་གི་ དམིགས་བསལ་ཚོགས་ཆུང་གིས་ ཞུ་བ་འབད་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།
རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཚོགས་སྡེའི་ གནས་སྐབས་སྙན་ཞུ་དང་འཁྲིལ་བ་ཅིན་ ཚོགས་ཆུང་གིས་ གཞུང་གིས་ ད་ལྟོའི་ སློབ་སྟོན་གསར་བཙུགས་བྱ་སྒོ་དང་ ཤེས་རིག་མཐོ་རིམ་སློབ་གྲྭའི་ ཁྱད་ཡོད་ཚད་གཞི་ཚུ་ཡང་ སྒྲིང་སྒྲི་བཟོ་དགོཔ་འདུག་ཟེར་ཨིན་པས།
ཚོགས་ཆུང་གིས་ སློབ་སྟོན་བགོ་བཀྲམ་ལམ་ལུགས་ཚུ་ཡང་ བསྐྱར་ཞིབ་འབད་དགོ་མི་དེ་ཡང་ སློབ་དཔོན་དང་ སློབ་ཕྲུག་ཆ་ཚད་འཁྲིལ་ཏེ་ཡོདཔ་ད་ ཁྱད་རིག་དང་འཁྲིལ་ཏེ་ སློབ་དཔོན་ཚུ་ བགོ་བཀྲམ་འབད་དགོ་པའི་ཁར་ སློབ་གྲྭའི་དམིགས་བསལ་དགོས་མཁོ་ཚུ་ འགྲུབ་དགོ་ཟེར་ཨིན་པས།
མང་ཤོས་ཅིག་གིས་ ལྷན་ཁག་གི་འཆར་གཞི་ཚུ་ ག་དེ་སྦེ་ མཐར་འཁྱོལ་འབྱུང་འོང་གའི་ དོགས་པ་ཡོདཔ་ད་ དེ་ཡང་ ཞི་གཡོག་ལྷན་ཚོགས་ཀྱིས་ གྲོས་འཆར་དེ་ལུ་ རང་དབང་ཐོག་ལས་ ཐག་གཅད་པ་ཅིན་ ཨིན་པའི་གནས་ཚུལ།
ཨོ་རྒྱན་རྡོ་རྗེ།

༉ ས་གནས་གཞུང་གི་འགོ་ཁྲིདཔ་ཚུ་གིས་འབད་བ་ཅིན་ བློན་ཆེན་གྱི་ བཀོད་ཁྱབ་བཀའ་རྒྱ་ལྟར་དུ་ གཞུང་གིས་ ཞལ་འཛོམས་འཚོགས་ནི་དང་ གཞུང་འབྲེལ་གྱི་ ལཱ་འབད་དགོ་པའི་རིགས་ཚུ་ རྫོང་ཁའི་ནང་ ཤུགས་བཏོན་དགོཔ་སྦེ་ བཤད་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།
དེ་ཡང་ ས་གནས་གཞུང་གི་ འགོ་ཁྲིདཔ་ཚུ་གིས་ སྤྱི་ཟླ་༧ པའི་ཚེས་༡༧ ལུ་ ཐིམ་ཕུག་ལུ་སྦེ་ འཆར་གཞི་༡༣ པའི་ མཉམ་འབྲེལ་ཞལ་འཛོམས་འཚོགས་པའི་སྐབས་ལུ་ ཞུ་བ་འབད་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།
ཐིམ་ཕུག་ ནཱ་རོ་རྒཔོ་ མགོནམ་ཚེ་རིང་གིས་ བཤད་མིའི་ནང་ བློན་ཆེན་གྱི་ བཀོད་ཁྱབ་བཀའ་རྒྱ་དེ་ དུས་ཚོད་ཁར་གནང་སྟེ་འབད་རུང་ འདི་ཚུ་ལག་ལེན་ཐད་ཁར་ དེ་ཅིག་ར་མིན་འདུག་ཟེར་ཨིནམ་ད་ ཁོ་གིས་འབད་བ་ཅིན་ རྫོང་ཁ་དེ་ འབྲུག་པའི་ལམ་སྲོལ་གྱི་ གཞི་འགྱམ་བཟུམ་ཅིག་ཨིནམ་ལས་ ལས་སྡེ་ག་ར་གིས་ གཙོ་རིམ་བཟུང་དགོ་ཟེར་ཨིན་པས།
བཀོད་ཁྱབ་བཀའ་རྒྱ་གནང་སྟེ་འབད་རུང་ ལག་ལེན་འཐབ་མི་མིན་འདུག་ཟེར་ཨིནམ་ད་ དེ་ཡང་ ནང་སྲིད་ལྷན་ཁག་དང་ སྲོལ་འཛིན་དང་རྫོང་ཁ་གོང་འཕེལ་ལས་ཁུངས་ དེ་ལས་ གྲྭ་ཚང་ལྷན་ཚོགས་ཚུ་ལུ་ ཕོག་པའི་འགན་ཁུར་ཅིག་ཨིནམ་ད་ ཁོང་གིས་ ལྟ་རྟོག་འབད་མི་དགོ་ག་ཟེར་ བཤད་ཡོདཔ་བཞིན་དུ་ གཞན་ཡང་ ད་རེས་མཉམ་འབྲེལ་ཞལ་འཛོམས་ཀྱི་ སྐབས་ལུ་ཡང་ གྲོས་གཞི་ཚུ་ག་ར་ ཨིང་སྐད་ཀྱི་ཐོག་ལུ་ བཟོ་ནུག་ཟེར་ཨིན་པས།
མགོནམ་ཚེ་རིང་གིས་ མ་གཞི་ ཨིང་སྐད་དེ་ གལ་ཆེཝ་སྦེ་ཡོད་རུང་ རྫོང་ཁ་དེ་ལུ་ གོ་སྐབས་མངམ་ བཞག་དགོ་ཟེར་ཨིན་པས།
དགའ་སེང་ཚོ་གོངམ་གི་རྒཔོ་ ཕྱག་རྡོར་གྱིས་ སློབ་གྲྭ་ཚུ་ནང་ལས་ཕར་ རྫོང་ཁ་སློབ་དཔོན་མ་ལང་པའི་དཀའ་ངལ་དང་ སློབ་ཕྲུག་ཨ་ལོ་ཚུ་ རྫོང་ཁའི་ཆོས་ཚན་ནང་ མཐར་འཁྱོལ་མིའི་གྱངས་ཁ་ མར་བབས་སོང་མི་དེ་ལུ་ ཚ་གྱང་ཡོད་ལུགས་ཀྱི་ ཞུ་བ་འབད་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།
ཁོ་གིས་འབད་བ་ཅིན་ ནང་སྲིད་ལྷན་ཁག་གིས་ རྫོང་ཁའི་ཐོན་རིམ་ཚུ་ པར་སྐྲུན་དང་ ཨང་ཅན་གྱི་ཐོག་ལས་ མི་མང་གིས་ ཐོབ་ཐབས་ཡོདཔ་སྦེ་ བཟོ་དགོཔ་འདུག་ཟེར་ཨིནམ་ད་ ད་ལྟོ་བཟུམ་ཅིག་འབད་བ་ཅིན་ ཨིང་སྐད་དང་ཕྱདཔ་ད་ རྫོང་ཁ་དེ་ སྣང་མེད་མཚམས་ཅིག་སྦེ་ ལུས་ཏེ་འདུག་ཟེར་ཨིན་པས།
རྒཔོ་ཕྱག་རྡོར་གྱིས་ རྫོང་ཁ་གོང་འཕེལ་གྱི་དོན་ལུ་ ལཱ་ཚུ་སྒེར་སྡེ་ལུ་བྱིན་ནི་དང་ འདི་དང་འབྲེལ་བའི་ལས་སྣ་ཚུ་ ལོ་ལྔའི་འཆར་གཞི་༡༣ པའི་ནང་ འབད་དགོཔ་འདུག་ཟེར་ཨིན་པས།
ནང་སྲིད་བློན་པོ་ ཚེ་རིང་གིས་ རྫོང་ཁ་གོང་འཕེལ་གཏང་ནིའི་དོན་ལུ་ མི་མང་ལས་ རྒྱབ་སྐྱོར་དགོཔ་འདུག་ཟེར་ཨིནམ་ད་ ད་ལྟོ་ སྲོལ་འཛིན་དང་རྫོང་ཁ་གོང་འཕེལ་ལས་ཁུངས་དང་ ལས་སྡེ་གཞན་ཚུ་གིས་ རྫོང་ཁ་ལག་ལེན་འཐབ་མི་ལུ་ ངལ་རངས་ཡོད་ཟེར་ཨིན་པས།
བློན་ཆེན་གྱིས་འབད་བ་ཅིན་ ད་ལྟོ་ཡོད་པའི་རྫོང་ཁ་གིས་ དེ་ཅིག་ར་ ཡར་དྲག་འགྱོ་མི་ཚུགས་ནི་ཨིནམ་ལས་ ལྷན་ཁག་གིས་ བློན་ཆེན་གྱི་བཀའ་རྒྱ་དང་འཁྲིལ་ཏེ་ བསྟར་སྤྱོད་འབད་ནི་ཨིན་ཟེར་ཨིན་པས།
སྲོལ་འཛིན་དང་རྫོང་ཁ་གོང་འཕེལ་ལས་ཁུངས་ཀྱིས་ ལོ་ལྔའི་འཆར་གཞི་༡༣ པའི་ནང་ ཨང་ཅན་ཐོག་ རྫོང་ཁའི་ཤེས་ཡོན་སྤེལ་ཐབས་ལུ་ དངུལ་ཀྲམ་ས་ཡ་༢༠བཞག་སྟེ་ཡོད་ཟེར་ཨིན་པས།
ས་གནས་གཞུང་གི་ འགོ་ཁྲིདཔ་ཚུ་གིས་འབད་རུང་ འགན་ཁུར་འབག་སྟེ་ ཕམ་ཚུ་གིས་ རང་སོའི་ཨ་ལོ་ཚུ་ ཁྱིམ་ནང་ རྫོང་ཁ་ལྷབ་སྦྱང་འབད་བཅུག་དགོ་ཟེར་ཨིནམ་ད་ དེ་གིས་ སློབ་དཔོན་ཚུ་ སློབ་ཁང་ནང་ ལཱ་འཇམ་ཏོང་ཏོ་བཟོ་ཚུགས་ཟེར་བཤད་པའི་ཁར་ སྤྱིར་བཏང་ཕམ་ཚུ་གིས་ ཁོང་རའི་ ཨ་ལོ་ཚུ་དང་གཅིག་ཁར་ ཨིང་སྐད་དེ་ར་ སླབ་སྡོདཔ་མས་ཟེར་ཨིན་པས།
ལ་ལོ་ཅིག་གིས་འབད་བ་ཅིན་ སློབ་གྲྭ་ནང་ རྫོང་ཁའི་ཆོས་ཚན་ ཡར་སེང་འབད་ནི་དང་ གཞི་རིམ་སློབ་གྲྭ་ནང་ལས་ར་ སྡེབ་སྦྱོར་གྱི་ སྦྱང་བ་འབད་བཅུག་ནི་ དེ་ལས་ རྫོང་ཁའི་སློབ་ཚན་ནང་ ལྷབ་སྦྱང་༢ ཆ་ར་ སྤྲོ་བ་ཅན་སྦེ་ བཟོ་དགོཔ་འདུག་ བཤད་ཡོད་པའི་གནས་ཚུལ།
ཚེ་རིང་དབང་འདུས།

༉ འཆར་གཞི་༡༣ པའི་ ཡན་ལག་འཆར་གཞི་ སྤུས་གཙང་ལྡན་པའི་འབྲུག་ཡུལ་ལས་རིམ་འོག་ ས་གནས་གཞུང་ཚུ་གི་ འགན་ཁུར་ཡར་དྲག་གཏང་ནིའི་དོན་ལས་ གཞུང་གིས་ འཆར་དངུལ་དངུལ་ཀྲམ་ས་ཡ་༡༥༤༦༥ གསལ་བསྒྲགས་འབད་ནུག།
དེ་ཡང་ ས་གནས་གཞུང་དང་ འཆར་གཞི་༡༣ པའི་ ལག་ལེན་ཞལ་འཛོམས་ནང་ གསལ་བསྒྲགས་འབད་ཡོདཔ་ད་ གསོ་བ་ལྷན་ཁག་དང་ རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་གསོ་བའི་ཞབས་ཏོག་ འགོ་དཔོན་ཚུ་གིས་འབད་བ་ཅིན་ གཞུང་དང་ ས་གནས་གཞུང་ཚུ་གིས་ མཉམ་འབྲེལ་འབད་དགོ་ཟེར་ཨིན་པས།
གསོ་བ་ལྷན་ཁག་གི་ མི་མང་གསོ་བའི་ལས་ཁུངས་ཀྱིས་ ས་གནས་གཞུང་ལས་ རྒྱབ་སྐྱོར་ལེན་ཏེ་ ལག་ལེན་འཐབ་ནིའི་དོན་ལུ་ ལས་སྣ་ཚུ་བཟོ་སྟེ་ཡོདཔ་ད་ ལས་སྣ་སྦོམ་ཤོས་ཚུ་ཡང་ ཉེན་ཁ་བརྡ་དོན་དང་ མི་སྡེ་འབྲེལ་འཛིན་ ལམ་ལུགས་ཐོག་ལས་བརྡ་སྤྲོད་ དེ་ལས་ གཙོ་རིམ་ཅན་གྱི་ མི་མང་གསོ་བའི་ནད་གཞི་ལ་སོགས་པ་ཐོག་ལས་ གསོ་བའི་ལྷན་ཐབས་གོང་འཕེལ་གཏང་ནི་ཨིན་པས།
ལས་རིམ་ཚུ་ཡང་ འབུ་ནད་མེད་པའི་ ནད་གཞི་གི་ཉེན་ཁ་མར་ཕབ་དང་ འོས་འབབ་ལྡན་པའི་ནད་གཞི་འཛིན་སྐྱོང་ དེ་ལས་ ཨའི་དང་ཨ་ལོ་གི་ འཕྲོད་བསྟེན་ལས་རིམ་ཡར་དྲག་གཏང་ནིའི་དོན་ལུ་ སྒྲུབ་བྱེད་གཞི་བཞག་བར་འཛུལ་འབད་ནི་ལུ་ གཙོ་རིམ་བཟུང་ནི་ཨིན་པས།
ས་གནས་གཞུང་གིས་ ནད་གཞི་དང་ མི་མང་གསོ་བའི་སྐོར་ལས་ གོ་བ་བརྡ་སྤྲོད་འབད་ནི་ གལ་ཅན་ཅིག་ཨིནམ་ད་ གཞན་ཚོར་ལས་རིམ་འགོ་འདྲེན་དང་ ས་གནས་གཞུང་གི་ འགོ་ཁྲིདཔ་ཚུ་ མི་མང་གསོ་བའི་ལས་སྣ་དང་ ནད་གཞི་གདོང་ལེན་ཚུ་ནང་ གྲལ་གཏོགས་འབད་ནི་ཨིན་པས།
གསོ་བའི་ཞབས་ཏོག་ལས་ཁུངས་ཀྱི་ དམིགས་ཡུལ་དེ་ རང་ལུགས་ཀྱི་མཐུན་རྐྱེན་ཚུ་ འཐོབ་ནི་ངེས་བརྟན་དང་ ཁེ་གྱོང་པ་ཚུ་ གྲལ་གཏོགས་ཐོག་ལས་ འཕྲོད་བསྟེན་དང་ ཞི་བདེ་ཞབས་ཏོག་ཡར་དྲག་གཏང་ནི་ མི་སྡེ་དང་ རང་ལུགས་དང་རང་ལུགས་ལག་ལེན་ལེགས་སྒྱུར་བཟོ་ནི་ དེ་ལས་ ས་གནས་གཞུང་གི་ གནས་ཚད་ནང་ གསོ་བའི་ཞབས་ཏོག་གི་ སྤུས་ཚད་སྒྲིང་སྒྲི་ བཟོ་དགོཔ་ཨིན་པས།
གསོ་བའི་འགོ་དཔོན་ཚུ་གིས་ སླབ་མིའི་ནང་ འཇོན་ཐངས་ཅན་ཅིག་སྦེ་ ལག་ལེན་འཐབ་ནིའི་དོན་ལུ་ དཀོན་དྲགས་ཅན་གྱི་དང་ ཉམས་ཉེན་ཅན་གྱི་ སྨན་ཚུ་འཛུགས་སྐྱོང་འཐབ་ནི་ལུ་ རྫོང་ཁག་སོ་ནམ་དང་སྒོ་ནོར་ལས་སྡེ་ལས་ རྒྱབ་སྐྱོར་ཚུ་དགོཔ་ཨིནམ་བཞིན་དུ་ རང་ལུགས་སྨན་མཐུན་རྐྱེན་ཚུ་ ཡུན་བརྟན་གོང་འཕེལ་འཛིན་སྐྱོང་འཐབ་ནི་ལུ་ བཟོ་ཚུགས་ནི་ཨིན་པས།
ཁྲོམ་སྡེ་དང་ རྒེད་འོག་བདག་སྐྱོང་ དེ་ལས་ ས་གནས་གཞུང་གི་ གསོ་བའི་ལས་ཚན་དང་གཅིག་ཁར་ གོ་བ་བརྡ་སྤྲོད་ཀྱི་ རྒྱབ་སྐྱོར་འབད་ནི་དང་ མི་སྡེ་ནང་ སྨན་བཅོས་ལག་ལེན་གྱི་ ཉེན་ཁ་ངེས་བརྟན་བཟོ་ནི་ཨིན་པས།
རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་གསོ་བའི་ཞབས་ཏོག་འོག་གི་ གསོ་བའི་ཞབས་ཏོག་ལས་ཁུངས་ཀྱིས་ འཆར་གཞི་ལས་སྣ་ཚུ་ གསལ་ཞུ་འབད་ཡོདཔ་ད་ དེ་ནང་ ས་གནས་དང་ རྒྱལ་སྤྱི་གསོ་རིག་སྨན་བཅོས་ཐོག་ལས་ གསོ་བའི་འཕྲོད་བསྟེན་ཁྱབ་ཚད་དང་ དམིགས་བསལ་གྱི་ གསོ་བའི་འཕྲོད་བསྟེན་ཞབས་ཏོག་ དེ་ལས་ གསོ་བའི་ལམ་ལུགས་སྒྲིང་སྒྲི་བཟོ་ནི་ལུ་ བརྡ་དོན་འཕྲུལ་རིག་ཡར་དྲག་གཏང་ནི་ཨིན་པས།
ས་གནས་གཞུང་གི་ འགན་ཁུར་དེ་ གསོ་བའི་ལས་བྱེདཔ་ཚུ་ལུ་ ཐག་རིང་སྨན་བཅོས་འགོ་འདྲེན་འཐབ་ནི་དང་ མི་སྡེ་འབྲེལ་འཛིན་ དེ་ལས་ ཌི་ཇི་ཊཱལ་འཕྲོད་བསྟེན་ཤེས་ཡོན་ གོང་འཕེལ་གཏང་ནི་ཨིན་པས།
རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་གསོ་བའི་ཞབས་ཏོག་གི་ འགོ་དཔོན་ཚུ་གིས་ སླབ་མིའི་ནང་ འཆར་གཞི་༡༣ པའི་ནང་ འཆར་གཞི་སྦོམ་ཚུ་ཡང་ མཁལ་རྡོག་ཚབ་བཙུགས་དང་ སྐྱེ་ནུས་སྨན་བཅོས་ཞབས་ཏོག་གཞི་བཙུགས་ འགྲུལ་སྐྱོད་ཡུ་ནིཊ་ལ་སོགས་པ་ཚུ་ཡོད་ཟེར་ ཨིན་པའི་གནས་ཚུལ།
ཨོ་རྒྱན་རྡོ་རྗེ།

In recent years, a troubling trend has emerged where individuals and groups vocally lobby for justice in specific cases even as courts are in the process of deciding sentences. Phrases like “Justice for this” and “Justice for that” have become all too common, with activists and ordinary citizens alike taking to the streets or social media to demand outcomes that align with their personal beliefs. This phenomenon represents a significant challenge to the integrity of our judicial system and undermines the very foundation of the rule of law.

The judiciary is the cornerstone of any democratic society, entrusted with the vital responsibility of interpreting and applying the law impartially. It operates on principles of fairness, evidence, and legal precedent, ensuring that every individual receives a fair trial. When public opinion attempts to influence judicial decisions, it risks distorting these principles, turning legal proceedings into popularity contests rather than objective assessments based on facts and law.

One of the most profound dangers of such public lobbying is the potential to create a climate of fear and intimidation. Judges, who are meant to be neutral and detached, may feel pressured by the weight of public opinion, leading to decisions that cater more to popular sentiment than to justice. This not only jeopardises the outcome of individual cases but also erodes public confidence in the judicial system as a whole. If people start to believe that justice can be swayed by the loudest voices, the principle of equality before the law is fundamentally compromised.

Moreover, the act of publicly shaming or protesting against individuals who are still undergoing legal processes is a form of vigilante justice. It bypasses the structured, deliberate mechanisms of the judicial system and replaces them with mob rule. This is particularly concerning in cases where the accused may eventually be found innocent. Premature condemnation based on incomplete information can irreparably damage reputations and lives, violating the basic tenet of “innocent until proven guilty.”

There are also broader societal implications to consider. When the public takes justice into its own hands, it sends a message that the established legal system is insufficient or untrustworthy. This can lead to increased lawlessness, as individuals begin to feel justified in taking matters into their own hands. A society that loses faith in its judicial system is one that risks descending into chaos and disorder, where personal vendettas and subjective opinions hold more weight than objective, evidence-based rulings.

It is crucial for the public to recognise and respect the boundaries of their involvement in judicial matters. While it is entirely appropriate to advocate for legal reforms or to support victims through legal and appropriate channels, it is not acceptable to attempt to influence the outcome of specific cases through public pressure. The judiciary must be allowed to operate without interference, guided solely by the law and the evidence presented.

It is incumbent upon all of us to uphold the sanctity of the judiciary, allowing it to function independently and impartially. Only then can we ensure true justice for all.

International partners back the 13th Plan

hukten Zangpo

Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay emphasised the importance of a strong monitoring and evaluation system for the ambitious 13th Plan during its launch in Thimphu yesterday. He stated that achieving the plan’s goals requires meticulous oversight.

Lyonchhen said that while respective ministries are responsible for monitoring the implementation of their annual work plan activities, he will personally review the progress, output and outcomes, on a monthly basis, to keep track of the first year of the 13th Plan.

The review reports will also be submitted to His Majesty The King on a quarterly basis.

The 13th Plan is critical as Bhutan stands at a crossroads, Lyonchhen said. “With the plan being nearly double the size of the 12th Plan, its main focus is on achieving economic development, which will be the right path to choose. To make the country rich, people have to become rich.”

To achieve economic development, he highlighted the importance of infrastructure development, digitisation, access to electricity, and agricultural advancement.

Lyonchhen also addressed the challenges faced by farmers struggling to meet their basic needs. He emphasised the need to shift from subsistence farming to commercial farming to generate income.

He added that supporting the private sector by easing business regulations, backing the manufacturing sector, attracting foreign direct investments, and boosting tourism are crucial for economic growth.

“And community development is equally important for which we must address the quality of education across the country to ensure the youth receive a 21st-century education,” Lyonchhen said.

He also stressed the need to improve the country’s healthcare services, including addressing concerns of quality and specialisation.

He shared confidence in the 13th Plan’s success, because of the extensive consultations with various stakeholders, including ministries, agencies, the private sector, and Druk Holding and Investments, among others.

Lyonchhen plans to consult dzongdags on key areas such as economic development, agriculture, tourism, infrastructure, and education quality improvement in respective dzongkhags.

Lyonchhen expressed gratitude to the government of India for generously supporting Nu 85 billion for the 13th Plan and Nu 15 billion under the economic stimulus programme.

The government of India supported Bhutan with Nu 45 billion in the 12th Plan.

The 13th Plan, with the goal of making Bhutan a high-income GNH country by 2034, aims to increase GDP to USD 5 billion by 2029 and USD 10 billion by 2034. The plan aims to raise GDP per capita to above USD 6,174 by 2029.

The total budget for the 13th Plan is Nu 512.28 billion, a 63 percent increase from the 12th Plan.

International

partners show support

During the event, India’s Ambassador to Bhutan, Sudhakar Dalela, said that the 13th Plan document captures Bhutan’s development agenda across sectors such as governance, health, education, skill development, digitisation, energy, economy, infrastructure, and private enterprise.

“Bhutan and India enjoy a unique type of friendship and cooperation. Our extraordinary partnership, spans diverse sectors, from education to economy, health, hydropower, sports to space, data and technology,” he added.

“Strong people-to-people connections and our youth linkages and deep spiritual connections are key drivers of our exemplary partnership.”

India will continue to be a steadfast and a reliable development partner of Bhutan, Sudhakar Dalela said.

The Chief Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Bhutan, Tomoyuki Yamada, said that the revised country development cooperation policy would focus on health and industrial promotion, in addition to existing assistance in agriculture and infrastructure.

He added that JICA would promote several cooperation programmes in agriculture, infrastructure, health and medical care, while working on industrial promotion, governance, environment, and disaster prevention.

Tomoyuki Yamada also shared JICA’s plans to collaborate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MoAL) on human-wildlife conflict this year.  “This project will actively introduce Japanese experience against crop damage caused by wildlife, which will immensely contribute to improvement of productivity and income in rural areas,” he added.

Tomoyuki Yamada also said that the JICA office is in discussion with the MoAL to add value to agriculture and provide financial support to farmers.

He said that discussions are underway with Druk Green Power Corporation and Bhutan Power Corporation on two hydropower projects – Jomori and Druk Bindu.

He also outlined plans for landslide prevention measures and providing medical equipment in medical centres in eastern Bhutan.

Tomoyuki Yamada said that JICA, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and GovTech, is exploring support for four digital banks- Health Bank, Medical Bank, Bio-bank, and Household Bank.

Representing the UN system in Bhutan, country director of the World Food Programme, Carrie Morrision, said that the UN will provide support through strategic priorities of the cooperation framework, which focuses on sustainable economic development, diversification, and shared prosperity.

Under these priorities of the cooperation framework, the UN in Bhutan expects to deliver more than USD 200 million in support of the 13th Plan.

Carrie Morrision said that UN will provide support towards digitisation, youth engagement and empowerment, and continued promotion of gender equality, women’s empowerment, and the rights of persons with disabilities.

The Asian Development Bank’s Country Director, Shamit Chakravarti, said that the bank has a programme of about USD 350 million in concessional assistance, excluding USD 380 million to USD 400 million in ordinary capital resources for hydropower projects over the next four years.

He added that the bank is currently working on the design of the Dagachhu reservoir hydropower project with two months of storage capacity to reduce power deficits in the winter months.

In the 13th Plan, ADB will focus on economic transformation programme, skilling programme, and ecological diversity and resilience programme.

“We would like to work on capitalising public private partnerships in the area of health diagnostics and solar power,” he said.

Thinley Namgay

The local government (LG) leaders called for stricter enforcement of the Prime Minister’s executive order that mandates all government meetings and official correspondences to be conducted in Dzongkha.

The LG leaders raised this issue during the ongoing 13th Plan coordination meeting in Thimphu on July 17. The gups also highlighted issues hindering the development of Dzongkha.

Thimphu’s Naro Gup Gyem Tshering said that while the Prime Minister’s executive order was timely, its implementation has been lacking. He emphasised that Dzongkha, a cornerstone of Bhutanese culture, requires strict adherence from all agencies.

“Despite the executive order, there is no implementation. Isn’t it the duty of the home affairs ministry, Department of Culture and Dzongkha Development (DCDD), and the Dratshang Lhentshog to monitor?” he asked, adding that the even agendas for the coordination meeting were prepared in English.   

Gyem Tshering acknowledged the importance of English but stressed the need to prioritise Dzongkha unless there is an urgent need to use English. 

The Gup of Gasetsho Gom, Wangdue, Chado, raised concerns over the challenges schools are facing in teaching Dzongkha and the declining number of students securing pass percentage in Dzongkha subject.

He suggested that the home ministry should invest in producing Dzongkha resources, both in print and digital formats, and make it available to the public. “So far Dzongkha resources are negligible compared to English,” he said.

Gup Chado also proposed outsourcing Dzongkha development works to the private sector and increasing related activities in the 13th Plan.

Home Minister Tshering said that the development of Dzongkha requires the support of all citizens. “It is good to see that DCDD and many other agencies are using Dzongkha now.”

The Prime Minister has also ordered the provision of language translator devices for foreigners attending events in Bhutan, Lyonpo said.

Lyonpo admitted that the current status of Dzongkha is not promising and assured that the ministry would do its best to ensure full implementation of the Prime Minister’s order.

The DCDD has allocated Nu 20 million in the 13th Plan to create and develop digital Dzongkha literary resources.

Local leaders also highlighted the pivotal role parents play in teaching Dzongkha to their children at home, which would make the jobs of teachers much easier at school. However, on the contrary, educated parents usually communicate in English with their children.

Some suggestions to tackle these issues include increasing the number of Dzongkha subjects in schools, introducing basic grammar lessons from lower grades, and making Dzongkha teaching and learning sessions more engaging and interactive.

Jigmi Wangdi

The government has announced plans to allocate approximately Nu 154.65 million to local governments (LGs) to bolster their roles in the Healthy Drukyul Programme as part of the 13th Plan.

This allocation was revealed during the coordination meeting with LGs on the implementation of the 13th Plan held yesterday.

Officials from the Ministry of Health (MoH) and National Medical Services (NMS) outlined key areas where the government and LGs can collaborate.

The Department of Public Health under the MoH has developed a range of activities to be implemented at the community level with LG support.

Major initiatives include enhancing health promotion through risk communication and community engagement, systematic screening and management of priority public health diseases (HIV, STIs, TB, and cervical cancer), controlling vector-borne diseases, and strengthening surveillance and outbreak response for priority health concerns.

The programme also focuses on evidence-based interventions to reduce non-communicable disease risk factors, providing appropriate disease management, and accelerating mother and child health programmes.

LGs will play a crucial role in raising awareness about diseases and public health, conducting sensitisation programmes, and involving local leaders in public health activities and disease surveillance.

The Department of Health Services under the MoH aims to ensure access to traditional medicinal resources (medicinal herbs), promote health and well-being services through stakeholder engagement, streamline local and spiritual healing practices, and strengthen quality assurance of health services at the LG level.

Health officials said that effective implementation will require support from the dzongkhag agriculture and forestry sectors to cultivate rare and endangered medicinal herbs, ensuring the sustainable management of traditional medicine resources.

Thromde and gewog administrations, along with LG health sectors, will also need to support awareness and advocacy efforts, ensuring the safety of local healing practices.

The Department of Clinical Services under the NMS presented its planned activities, which include enhancing healthcare coverage through local and international outreach health camps, improving access to specialised healthcare services, and leveraging ICT-enabled solutions to strengthen health systems.

The role of LGs will be to support health workers in organising outreach clinics, engaging communities, and promoting digital health literacy.

NMS officials also highlighted major services planned for the 13th Plan, such as kidney transplants, the establishment of a fertility clinic, a mobile medical unit, and plastic and reconstructive surgery.

Yangyel Lhaden

The local government (LG) leaders reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen multi-sectoral task force and community-based support system (MSTF-CBSS) network in their districts during a high-level consultative meeting led by her Majesty the Gyalyum Sangay Choden Wangchuck on July 17.

The MSTF-CBSS network was established in the dzongkhags under Her Majesty’s patronage to address priority public health and social issues in the communities.

MSTF was formed in 2001 under the Ministry of Health and CBSS was established in 2005 under RENEW.

In 2014, the two networks were combined with the vision of ‘Reaching out together’.

Since its inception, the network has been instrumental in reaching unreached populations and solving local issues. However, it now faces challenges such as financial and human resource constraints and weak coordination.

The high-level consultative meeting was held to identify gaps in the implementation of the network’s activities, gather suggestions from stakeholders, and develop strategies to strengthen the network.

To address financial constraints, the Ministry of Health has allocated Nu 5 million for the MSTF-CBSS in the 13th Plan.

Health Minister Tandin Wangchuk said that this fund would soon be distributed to districts based on their needs.

During the meeting, local government leaders pledged to include MSTF-CBSS in their action plans, allocate budgets, and plan activities under the gewog action plan.

The Department of Public Health will lead the implementation, working closely with RENEW and local governments to promote MSTF-CBSS activities, formulate annual action plans, and conduct quarterly reviews of progress and expenditure, among others.

Naro Gup Gyem Tshering expressed the unanimous support for this initiative from Her Majesty. “The local leaders will ensure the network is strengthened and we fully commit to its implementation.”

While all local leaders supported the initiative, they agreed on the need for emergency shelters in all districts and the appointment of case managers for gender-based violence (GBV) cases, particularly in rural gewogs.

“This is crucial as rural areas face more GBV than urban areas, and the lack of services aggravates the issue,” a gup said.

RENEW has established 10 community service centers (CSCs) in 10 dzongkhags, to bring services closer to the communities. Six more CSCs are in development. The CSCs are also equipped with emergency shelters.

“We aim to have CSCs in all districts by the end of the year, and secure land and structures in the remaining four districts with the support from the districts,” RENEW’s executive director Tshering Dolkar said.

Mongar Thrizin Karma Sonam Wangchuk said that while most gups have received training, educating the community requires expertise. He called for officials to visit gewogs to advocate and create awareness. “A guidebook for implementing and carrying out MSTF-CBSS activities would be beneficial.”

The meeting was attended by dzongdas, thrompons, dzongkhag tshogdu thrizins, gups, and dzongkhag officials from 205 gewogs, as well as health and education minister, senior officials, and international partners from United Nations Fund for Population Activities, World Health Organisation, and Save the Children.

Sherab Lhamo

By 2029, more than 400,000 Bhutanese will be proficient in digital skills and able to safely use online services, including a range of public services, banking, video conferencing, and social media, as per the National Digital Strategy (NDS) 2024.

This ambitious goal is a key target of the digital society pillar, one of the three main pillars of the NDS. The other two pillars are the digital economy and digital governance, with the overarching vision being ‘Intelligent Bhutan’.

Out of a total budget of Nu 10 billion allocated for digital transformation, Nu 610.65 million will be dedicated to initiatives under the digital society pillar.

The digital society pillar aims to promote community vitality and improve the quality of life by leveraging technology to empower citizens, promote volunteerism, expedite the justice system, enhance community safety, and provide economic opportunities.

A crucial target of the strategy is to enhance cybersecurity, aiming to raise the cybersecurity maturity level from Level 1 (Start-up) to Level 4 (Strategic) to safeguard citizens.

Three strategies have been identified to achieve the digital society goal – enhancing digital literacy and skilling, strengthening communities, and ensuring safety and security of citizens.

Digital literacy will be improved by empowering citizens to utilise online services safely, encouraging active participation in national discourses, and promoting healthy technology practices.

The strategy also aims to harness the full potential of digital technologies through digital skill empowerment programs, targeting the general public, monk bodies, students, and others.

In addition, the program will focus on upskilling and reskilling civil servants to adapt to digital changes and deliver public services efficiently.

The strategy also aims to strengthen communities by promoting the sharing of culture and heritage knowledge through digital platforms and developing a volunteer and donation platform.

To ensure the safety and security of citizens, law enforcement agencies, government bodies, and educational institutions will collaborate to reduce the crime rate by streamlining the judiciary system with online services, developing coordinated case management systems, and improving the monitoring of public spaces using CCTVs and Internet of Things technologies.

The GovTech Agency will lead the implementation of the NDS, with multiple agencies involved. Different implementing and supporting partners have been identified for each strategy.

The NDS was launched on July 12.

His Majesty The King granted Dhar to appoint Paro Dzongdag and four Drangpons at the Tashichhodzong yesterday.

The newly appointed Paro Dzongdag, Norbu Wangchuk, was serving as the Director of the Department of Workforce Planning and Skills Development at the Ministry of Education and Skills Development. Norbu Wangchuk joined the Civil Service in 2000, and has worked with the Ministry of Finance, GNH Commission, Ministry of Labour and Human Resources, and Ministry of Education and Skills Development.

Paro Dzongdag Norbu Wangchuk

The newly appointed Drangpons are Tshoejab Mepham Denlen, Drangpon at the Office of The Gyalpoi Zimpon;Gyelpo, Drangpon of Pemagatshel Dzongkhag Court; Richa Gurung, Drangpon at Wangdue Phodrang Dzongkhag Court; and Tenzin Dorji, Drangpon at Lhuentse Dzongkhag Court.

Tshoejab Mepham Denlen has been serving as Legal Counsel at the OGZ since 2021, and is also the Legal Adviser for Bhutan Red Cross Society since 2024.

Gyelpo has been working in the Judiciary since 2011, and has been Dzongkhag Court Judge in Pemagatshel since November 2021.

Richa Gurung, who joined the Judiciary in 2013, has been serving as Acting Drangpon in Bench 2 of Wangdue Phodrang Dzongkhag Court.

Tenzin Dorji, who also joined the Judiciary in 2013, has been serving as Acting Drangpon in the Lhuentse Dzongkhag Court.