Upper house deliberates on Local Government Act (Amendment) Bill

The Local Government Act (Amendment) Bill 2014 was introduced to the National Council for deliberation by Tashi Wangmo, Deputy Chairperson of the Good Governance Committee, on Thursday (22 May).

She reported that GGC Committee had consulted all relevant stakeholders and studied all related documents with regard to 17 sections passed by the National Assembly for amendment and additional 12 sections proposed for amendment by the GG Committee on the Bill.

The members questioned as to why the bill needed to be amended in the first place and if proposed amendments would lead to establishing Thromde Tshogdes in all the districts as pledged by the government. Others were of the view that the proposed criteria in the Bill would impede establishment of Thromdes in all the districts, as such, they proposed that such stipulations should be toned down to meet the goals set in the Constitution.

The Chairperson asked the GG Committee to further discuss some of the important issues such as – whether Yenlag Thromde should be placed under Gewog Administration, bif only one Yenlag Thromde could represent in the Dzongkhag Tshogdu, where would others report in case there were more than one Yenlag Trhomde in a particular district, if the Yenlag Thromde was subsumed under a Chiwog, should there be two representatives to the Dzongkhag Tshogde and should classification of Thromde A & B be removed and accept the new proposal of having only Dzongkhag Thromde and Yenlag Thromde only – and present a report at the start of the Friday’s session.

The house is scheduled to continue its deliberation on the Local Government Act (Amendment) Bill 2014.