The house owner and local authorities continue to blame each other over the unfinished building
Frozen Lekithang Construction: With six months gone, since the Gelephu dungkhag stopped the construction of a three-storied building in Lekithang, after the land commission declared it illegal, the house-owner says the government should either let the family complete the construction, or compensate for the loss being incurred.
House owner Tshering Choden, 55, who claimed she took a loan of more than Nu 4M from a bank, and 2M from relatives for the construction, said both the half-completed structure and construction materials were getting damaged.
She alleged the dzongkhag and gewog officials should be held responsible for approving her application to construct the house.
The Gelephu dungkhag stopped the construction, after it was found out that the owner has started construction before the family could be issued the lag thram or land ownership certificate.
The family’s five-acre plot in Bhur was taken for Gelephu airport, and a plot in Gelephu gewog was provided as a substitute, where the construction is being done.
Gelephu dungkhag officials, in an earlier interview, said the family started construction, even before the land commission approved the land substitute.
Dungkhag officials also alleged that the house owner had acquired approval to construct in Dzomlingthang, about 7km from Gelephu town, but started building in Lekithang 4km from Gelephu town.
Tshering Choden claimed she has been victimised, and that there are many others, who constructed houses without thram in Gelephu. “I applied for construction in Dzomlingthang, because I thought this place was known as Dzomlingthang,” she said.
She alleged the dungkhag and dzongkhag officials, who allotted her the land substitute, should be held responsible. “Land commission officials shouldn’t harass people like this, because their representatives in the dzongkhag sanctioned the substitute,” Tshering Choden said.
Land commission officials, however, claimed the fault lay with the dzongkhag and house owner for starting construction before the land commission approved and sanctioned the land substitute.
“When we found the land substitute wasn’t in accordance with the Land Act 2007, we didn’t approve it but, by then, the construction had already started,” a land commission official said.
Land commission officials also said surveyors in dzongkhags do not decide on the commission’s behalf. “That’s the reason why dzongkhags forward cases to the commission,” one of the executive officials said.
The former Sarpang dzongda, Kunzang Wangdi, who chaired the dzongkhag land lease committee and allotted the land substitute, said the dzongkhag had written to 13 landowners after land commission did not approve the land substitute allotment.
He said the dzongkhag had not approved the construction, but facilitated approval from civil aviation, as the structure would be near the airport. “That isn’t the only document needed for house construction, the house owner also needs public and environment clearance too,” he said.
Although Gelephu gup Tashi approved the construction without lag thram, the gup justified that it happened because he was not aware of provisions of Land Act.
Sarpang dzongkhag officials said the landowner is a high-ranking army official, and should have been aware of the prevailing laws. “They availed the construction approval in Gelephu gewog, using the old thram number of their plot in Bhur, which is illegal,” an official said.
But the landowners claimed that both the gup and dzongkhag were aware of this when they applied for it.
Meanwhile 13 landowners, who lost land to the Gelephu airport, were allotted substitute land in Gelephu gewog by the dzongkhag land lease committee, as there was no land in Bhur of the same value. But now dungkhag officials say they have already identified suitable substitute land in Bhur, which will be allotted to the 13 landowners.
By Tashi Dema
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