Conflicts, peace and humanity

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Conflicts, peace and humanity

Mr. Chairman,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen

I would like to thank President Ahmadi Nejad and the government and people of Iran for the warm and gracious hospitality. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Egypt for having guided the work of our Movement over the last three years.

My delegation welcomes and fully subscribes to the summit theme, “Lasting Peace through Joint Global Governance”. Capturing the essence of our Movement, it is a statement of yearning for sustained peace through inclusive international cooperation and multilateralism. It draws attention to the reality of a world in conflict, a world being destroyed by our inability and unwillingness to understand each other and to strive together for collective good. It reminds us that ours is an intelligent but visionless species struggling to survive against the rising odds that are the makings of our own genius.

While peace may be understood as the absence of conflict, lasting peace is possible only when the very causes of conflict are nonexistent. Unfortunately, ours is a world where the causes for conflict abound with growing diversity and intensity not because they are inevitable but because we speak more of peace and care less for it. And so, even as the forces of globalization we have unleashed compel us to live together in shrinking space and time, we conspire as individuals and nations to stay apart. Through fierce and often unfair competition for material gain, we sacrifice precious relationships that hold together the bricks of our society. But we are reminded ever so often that in our interdependent world, there can be no gains at the cost of others. We prosper or suffer together.

And since our inadvertent choice, as compelled by the imperatives of our development models, is to suffer, we are succeeding in promoting causes of discontent at the personal and societal levels. Not only are we in conflict with each other, we are relentlessly and methodically destroying the ecosystem services that form earth’s life support system. In consequence, natural resources are depleting fast and even water is now a very scarce commodity. What the escalating race for control of diminishing resources will yield is a chilling thought. And what happens when, very soon, there may be nothing to fight over?

Global warming is causing extreme weather events, natural calamities, destruction of life and property, crop failures, famine, displacement and diseases. Our financial and economic systems are falling apart and states are failing. Socially, families and communities are disintegrating to produce increasing crime, loneliness and mental diseases. It is ironic that material progress and economic gains should come at the cost of human security and threaten our very survival on the planet.

These and many other reasons, give us no cause for peace and happiness. But in the end, should happiness, which is a product of peace, not be the ultimate measure of human endeavor and advancement? Why then do we not make it the end of development and purpose of governance? Could it not be that the perils faced by humanity are the consequences of our having publicly trivialized this ultimate human value while in private, it is all that we strive for?

Mr. Chairman, It is with a sense of cautious optimism that my delegation wishes to report of the increasing dissatisfaction around the world with GDP focused development that has engendered unsustainable consumerism. There is now a serious search for a more comprehensive set of indicators that should guide development toward human wellbeing and happiness. My own country has been sharing its experience of having pursued Gross National Happiness (GNH), over four decades, by balancing material growth with mental and spiritual enrichment within a stable environment. In collaboration with researchers and institutions across the world, we continue to improve the set of indices we use to measure variations in the conditions that promote human wellbeing and the resultant level of individual and collective happiness.

The adoption of the resolution on happiness by the UN last year led to the High Level Meeting at the UN Head Quarters in April this year, attended not only by member delegations but by an array of thought leaders, scientists, leading economists and civil society. These were speedily followed up by yet another UN resolution introduced by the UNGA president, declaring the arrival of spring each year, the 20th of March, as the International Day of Happiness. These have given an impetus to the active global search for a holistic, sustainable and inclusive development process at national, sub-national and, indeed, corporate levels in many countries. In this regard, I would like to report that in carrying out the mandate of the UN High Level Meeting to elaborate our proposal for a new development model, the international experts group commissioned by our King, will work closely with the UN Secretary General’s own High Level Panel on the post MDG world and the New Sustainable Development Initiative headed by professor Jeffery Sachs. Bhutan will also participate actively in the efforts of the UNGA to define new goals for sustainable development. Beyond these, it is Bhutan’s cherished dream to be able to contribute to sustained global peace and security through non-permanent membership of the UN Security Council. To this end, we seek your blessing.

Mr. Chairman, these recent developments and many similar initiatives across diverse sections of our society around the world, give cause for optimism. These give me reason to believe that our world, which for too long, has been changing without clarity or direction, may, at last, be guided by the universal and timeless goal of happiness.

When humanity is bound together by the pursuit of this shared dream and destiny around which public policies and relationships are crafted, causes for conflict will dissipate. And when it becomes our collective understanding that the attainment of this ultimate public good must come through living in harmony with nature that still has enough resources to be shared judiciously and equitably for sustained responsible growth and meaningful advancement, there will be peace. We will then discover together that the pursuit of true and meaningful prosperity need neither threaten our own survival nor that of future generations. We will realize that true wealth and wellbeing is of a kind that can flourish without cause for conflict within and among nations. If indeed, these were to happen, I believe we will find lasting peace and happiness.

Thank you and Tashi Delek.

PM Thinley delivered his keynote address on the second day of the 16th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Tehran on September 1, 2012

Finally Bhutan has five aircrafts

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Finally Bhutan has five aircrafts

With arrival of a leased 138-seater Air Bus in the country, Bhutan has a total of five aircrafts. This includes an ATR and four Air Buses.

The leased Air Bus at Paro Airport (Picture courtesy : BBS)

Druk Air officials say, the leased Air Bus from Greece landed in the Paro International Airport Saturday, received by a religious ceremony perfumed by monks.

The nation has leased the three-year-old aircraft by agreeing to pay US $400,000 per month until 2015.

Officials claimed that the aircraft would help reduce air traffic during tourist seasons.

Druk Air, which has started connecting Paro with Singapore from September 1 this year, is learnt to be preparing to introduce new routes to Mumbai and Hong Kong in near future.

Professor breaks boundaries in Bhutan

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Professor breaks boundaries in Bhutan

Carla Raynor’s passion for education has no boundaries.

In June, Carla Raynor spent two weeks in Thimphu, Bhutan. During her trip, Raynor, who is the coordinator of the Family Literacy Program in the Adult Education and Transition Programs division at Kishwaukee College, visited Wangmo’s Montessori Day Care Center. (Rob Winner – [email protected])/ Picture Courtesy : Daily Chronicle

The Kishwaukee College family literacy program coordinator spent some of her summer thousands of miles away in Thimphu, Bhutan, teaching educators and children the value of family-based learning.

Raynor spent two weeks in the small southeast Asian country at a Montessori day care center, showing staff how to use limited resources and develop multiple lessons out of the same books and materials.

In Raynor’s Kishwaukee College program, children spend time engaged in literacy activities while their parents are in a GED preparation or English as a Second Language course. When parents and children come together at the end of class, they are given activities they can do with each other at home.

That concept was foreign to the teachers and families in Bhutan at first, but Raynor said everyone was open to and excited about the new learning techniques she shared.

“When I talked with the parents, they had no idea what family literacy was, but they were very, very open to it and made it a wonderful experience,” Raynor said. “I just told them about all the everyday things they do with their children and how to make it a learning experience.”

Raynor’s visit was highly anticipated by the staff and students, who have interacted with Raynor for a few years through the help of grants. International grants allowed the Montessori Day Care Center to receive some of the same materials used in Raynor’s children’s classes, and the students were able to upload YouTube videos of the puppet shows they created based on those books and see what the other class came up with.

There was one concern Raynor, dubbed “the lady with the golden hair” by the Bhutanese students, had when she observed the classrooms – the children were losing their native language.

Raynor said there was almost no language barrier because almost everyone was fluent in English, but some people had trouble speaking Dzongkha (pronounced Jong-ka), the native language.

“They are losing their home language, and to me that is very important to preserve because it is part of their culture,” Raynor said.

To help combat the problem, Raynor shared techniques for the staff to use the much more commonly found English books in a way that would also teach Dzongkha.

Wangmo Wangchuk, owner of the day care center in Bhutan, has invited Raynor back, although cost may prevent that from happening. Raynor did say she would stay connected with the school and continue to send materials, which generally cost her at least $200 out-of-pocket expense to ship.

A major project she will continue to assist is the Ability Bhutan Society, designed specifically for children and young adults with disabilities. It’s the first program of its kind in Bhutan and Raynor said it needs all the help it can get as it had next to nothing when she visited.

The journey was just one example of the enriching partnerships educational institutions can make across borders, said Evelina Cichy, vice president of instruction at Kishwaukee College. Cichy, whose brother facilitated the partnership through his work as an art conservationist in Bhutan, said she hopes to bring Wangchuk to Kishwaukee one day and that the partnership continues.

“You can always find ways to cross international lines,” Cichy said. “I think the connection helped both of them share ideas and benefited both programs.”

Reproduced from the Daily Chronicle

Fund crisis may hit Bhutan hydel plants

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Fund crisis may hit Bhutan hydel plants

Three major plants by India in the country likely to be affected

With inadequate flow of money likely to slow down construction of three major hydro-electric plants India is building in Bhutan, New Delhi is exploring possibilities of raising funds from the capital market for the projects to fulfill its commitment to buy 10,000 MW of power from the Himalayan nation by 2020.

The Ministry of External Affairs is worried over the fate of the Punatsangchhu-I and Punatsangchhu-II and Mangedechhu hydro-electric projects. The Ministry of Finance allocated only Rs 978 crore for the first two plants in the 2012-13 Budget, as against the MEA’s demand for Rs 1,969.67 crore.

The MEA used up 40.9 per cent and 32.5 per cent of the allocated fund for the Punatsangchhu-I and Punatsangchhu-II by June 15 last. It also spent 68.7 per cent of Rs 160 crore allocated for the Mangdechu HEP, even before the first quarter of the 2012-13 financial year ended.

Keeping in view Bhutan’s strategic importance to India’s security and its enormous hydro-electric potential, New Delhi in 2006 signed an agreement with Thimphu, committing itself to develop plants with total generation capacity of 5,000 MW in the Himalayan kingdom and as well as to import the entire quantum of power by 2020.

A protocol to raise the target to 10,000 MW was added to the agreement during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Thimphu in March 2009. The two governments identified 10 projects with an estimated capacity of 11,576 MW. New Delhi has been providing funds for the HEPs in Bhutan through the MEA.

In a note to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, the MEA pointed out that the HEPs in Bhutan had suffered due to paucity of fund during 2011-12 also as over 70 per cent of the total allocation had been exhausted in the first and second quarters of the financial year.

Though the ministry of finance had provided additional fund of Rs 350 crore in January this year, it had come too late to ensure adherence to the schedule, it added.

External Affairs Minister S M Krishna wrote to the then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on March 15 this year, pointing out that the three ongoing HEPs in Bhutan would be affected if the fund allocation was not raised. He had earlier taken up the issue with Planning Commission vice-chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia in October 2011.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs in its May 2012 report had noted that inadequate flow of funds might lead to time and cost overrun for the three HEPs.

To lessen the financial burden on the government, New Delhi decided to execute the remaining HEPs in Bhutan in the joint venture mode. MEA officials already had a meeting with the representatives of the EXIM Bank and some public sector banks to explore the possibility of raising funds from the Indian capital market for the HEPs proposed in the JV mode.

New Delhi and Thimphu are likely to ink a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to cover all the JV projects.

Courtesy : Deccan Herald

Carrick home for ethnic Nepali refugees

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Carrick home for ethnic Nepali refugees

Carrick has a new distinction. It has become a destination.

Over several years, the neighborhood has attracted the largest population of ethnic Nepali refugees from Bhutan of any in the city.

“It struck me for the first time when I was driving to work one day, a crisp morning in January [2010],” said District 4 Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak. “Five Asian men were carrying a sofa down Brownsville Road. They were not wearing winter clothing, and I thought, ‘What’s going on here?’ ”

In 1989, the Bhutanese government began a purge of ethnic Nepalis whose forebears had gone to Bhutan to farm.

In the early ’90s, more than 100,000 fled to refugee camps in Nepal.

Leslie Aizenman, director of refugee services for Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Pittsburgh, said an estimated 3,000 now live in the Pittsburgh area, roughly 500 in Carrick in the southern part of the city. Her agency is one of three in the city that shepherds refugees in the first months of their resettlement.

The influx to Carrick has resulted in more than 60 Nepali children in Concord Elementary’s English as a Second Language program this fall. There was none last year, said Jon Covel, director of ESL at Pittsburgh Public Schools.

“We found willing landlords in Carrick,” Ms. Aizenman said. “And people like it there” because of its bus service and proximity to countrymen in nearby boroughs. But most of the rest of the neighborhood doesn’t know what to think.

“People don’t know what’s going on, and you’re always fearful of the unknown,” said Phil Ricciardi, owner of a shoe repair and retail store on Brownsville Road. “A lot of people are saying they were dumped here and are on welfare.”

Told that they were persecuted and have help getting on their feet, he said, “It’s good to know that. My own grandfather came here from Italy with a $10 gold piece. I wore my cousin’s hand-me-downs. I see these guys carrying furniture people put out for the trash, and that’s recycling, like we did.”

He acknowledged that, with limited English, they are unlikely to be his customers. “But I doubt we will ever have trouble with their kids. They’re out with them on the streets, holding their hands and talking to them. They seem to be great family people.”

When Andrew McCauley was renovating an eight-unit apartment building on Brownsville Road three years ago, he said “they were lining up outside my door. I didn’t mind the risk of them not being established. I was going to be in that building all the time. I had a hunch they were going to be good tenants, and they have been. They have the same incentive to stay as I have to rent to them.”

Pittsburgh became a city of choice for refugees from original resettlement cities by word of mouth. But even a pleasant, affordable city is bewildering to these refugees, especially elders.

“They need people to translate for them and help them on the bus and to an appointment,” said Ragu Gautam, a freshman at Duquesne University who was born in a refugee camp.

“They don’t go out much and are frustrated and depressed,” said Bhim Dahal, a student at Community College of Allegheny County.

Mr. Gautam and Mr. Dahal are among the founders of the Bhutanese Student Group of Pittsburgh. Their goal is to do good works, guide younger kids and accompany and translate for their elders. They staged a recent litter pickup in Prospect Park in Whitehall, where many refugees live. To pay for the garbage bags and rubber gloves, they sold T-shirts and videos they made about their lives.

Mr. Gautam, who has a job as a night janitor, said most of the students have jobs.

Devi Sharma saw an opportunity to open a business here when he was living in Brooklyn, N.Y., and so many people were moving here. A science and math teacher in a refugee camp for eight years, he opened the Himalaya Store on Brownsville Road in Brentwood in 2010.

“I was looking for a convenient place for people to walk because communication is the biggest issue. You have to know some English to get on the right bus. It is much less expensive here than Brooklyn, and I have been well supported.”

Ms. Aizenman said that what looks like a large influx is a drop in the bucket of millions of refugees throughout the world. Homeland Security scrutiny can take up to two years. Although refugees have the right to work and live here indefinitely, the future is daunting.

Service agencies get furnishings and money donations to pay security deposits and several months rent. Refugee benefits run out in several months. None of the families qualifies for Section 8 because they come here without Social Security numbers, she said. Many don’t have work histories or credit because of their length of stay in camps.

“Some jobs you can work without English,” she said. “But even with some English and education, they have to find work so quickly. Without understanding our culture, they typically start at the bottom.”

At the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council, Matthew Onega is one of several teachers focusing on career pathways and practical English for the Bhutanese who can speak passable English.

He advises that “anything, anytime” is not a good answer to a potential employer. “Give an honest answer,” he said to his class one day. “If you can’t work at night, tell them why. If there is no bus, tell them. You have to be able to get there on time and get home.”

Gita Raj Gurung leans toward anything, anytime. “I am willing to take any job,” he said. “I need to get some experience.” Now 29 and living in Brentwood, he was 9 when his family fled to a refugee camp.

“They need so many things to begin life in America,” said Mr. Onega, who has been teaching at the council for five years after having served in the Peace Corps. “But they are hard-working, interested and committed.”

Ms. Rudiak said she was initially worried about Carrick’s response to the newcomers. Some dress in traditional clothing and most look markedly foreign.

“It’s a delicate situation because Carrick is a working-class neighborhood where people haven’t seen people who look so different,” she said.

She initiated a get-acquainted meeting at a Zone 3 public safety meeting, she said, “and 10 men showed up with interpreters. They know where the police station is now, and some have come to renters’ meetings.

“We get complaints that they don’t speak English,” she said. “I am acutely sensitive to this. My great-grandparents never spoke English. My first words were in Polish. My mother and I learned English together watching ‘Sesame Street.’ Who’s to say that one of these Nepali kids might not be a future councilperson?”

Courtesy : Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Lhotshampas – the true citizens

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Lhotshampas – the true citizens

Dr Bhampa RaiThe ethnic Nepalis have been living in Bhutan from as early as 1624 AD. Since then, people have lived in Bhutan as Gorkhas followed by an official declaration of Lhotshampas to those living in the southern part of the country in 1958.

Bhutan’s first organized census of 1964 as a preparation for admissions to the United Nations also helped to mobilize citizens between the ages 18-56 years for national infrastructure building in different regions. The local administrations were fully involved in the census, and the National Assembly resolved to maintain strict vigilance over the first countrywide census. The Royal Advisory Councilors were assigned to supervise the census and ensure coverage in all the regions. It was thus carried out with due verification and certification by the councilors to avoid unanticipated flaws.

Bhutan’s Home Ministry established the Department of Registration, which decided to issue Citizenship Identity Cards to all Bhutanese nationals. So they conducted a second organized nationwide census in 1977 based on the evidences of the first census (1964-71) and distributed citizenship identity cards to all Bhutanese nationals in 1981.

However, the Bhutan government promulgated the Citizenship Act of 1985, which came into force in the 1988 census. It came as a shock to the Bhutanese citizens as the requirements of 1988 census were far to accept. It required that for a person to be qualified as a Bhutanese national, both parents had to be Bhutanese. The old criterion of fatherhood was no longer valid. Worst of all, since this act was given retroactive implementation, all children born between 1958 and 1988 to non-Bhutanese mothers were declared as illegal immigrants.

In the meantime, the census operation required families to produce land tax receipts of 1958, and all those who could not produce the documents of 1958 were listed as illegal immigrants. Their citizenship identity documents had been seized by the Ministry of Home Affairs, which came into existence in 1968.

Interestingly, contrary to what the government has alleged the Lhotsampas with, no Bhutanese can be registered for citizenship without owning some landed property. The stronger part of the law is that without the approval of the King, any person occupying a vacant land shall be illegal and punishable by confiscation and imprisonment. To be specific, the Lhotshampas issued with the Citizenship Identity Cards are genuine and bona fide Bhutanese citizens. The changes brought about by the fourth monarch have severed the farsighted vision and achievements of his noble father, who had put wholehearted trust and confidence in the Royal Advisory Councilors, District Administrators and Parliamentarians, all of who represent the people and the government simultaneously.

It is also noteworthy that the regime’s atrocities are not confined to Lhotshampas only. The Sharchokpas, inhabitants of mostly the eastern part of the country and followers of the Nyingmapa tradition of Mahayana Buddhism have been also perpetually suppressed and deprived of their social, economic, cultural and traditional rights.

At one point, the pro-democracy forces from eastern Bhutan organized a peaceful demonstration in support of human rights and democracy in 1997. But people were rewarded with the armed repression and ruthless acts of the officials. Sixteen institutes of Buddhist learning of the Nyingmapa teachings were closed and the students were sent back to their homes. A monk was shot at point blank by the district chief, who went unpunished, while the Chief Abbot was imprisoned for eight years. Many others faced rigorous prison terms for merely raising their voice for the right to freedom of their own religion.  Some people were even made to flee the country to join their relatives in the refugee camps in Nepal.

Amidst this entanglement, Bhutan began campaigning to world community of its “Gross National Happiness” with per capita income of US$ 835 (2002) on a population of little over 650,000. Following pressure from various donor agencies and the international community, Bhutan expanded the cabinet by ten ministers in 2002,  eventually proclamation of  flawed ‘Constitution’ and dawn of an incomplete democracy in 2008.

Despite India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Nehru’s Paro public address in 1958 that assured Bhutan a sovereign state, and Smt. Indira Gandhi’s statement on Bhutan not to compare its status with that of Sikkim, the regime continued to look at its Nepali-speaking citizens with suspicion and evicted them in the early 90s.

The bilateral talks between Nepal and Bhutan to resolve the stalemate could yield nothing but pushed the issue towards uncertainty. Thus began the resettlement program in 2008. Although nearly 60,000 Bhutanese have been resettled in different western countries, the remaining population is still waiting to get repatriated. Personally, I strongly believe that third country resettlement is not a permanent solution as it was never a choice of Bhutanese people.

Still, the greatest responsibility lies in India, the world’s largest democracy, to help repatriate with honour, the interested Bhutanese refugees to their land of origin.

The writer is chairperson, Bhutanese Refugees Representative Repatriation Committee; the article is based on a presentation at the Symposium on ‘Bhutanese Refugees: The Tragic Story of the Forgotten People’ by Human Rights Defense (India) in New Delhi on 14 July 2012

Three-day Purana ends in UK

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Three-day Purana ends in UK

The Bhutanese Welfare Association in the UK (BWA) organized a three-day Purushutam Mahatme Bishnun Purana in Greater Manchester that concluded successfully Sunday.

The program was conducted under the Acharyaship of Pandit Tara Nidi Niroula who offered his services voluntarily for the wellbeing of the entire community, BWA Chairperson Durga Giri said.

Tilak Sashtri, a learned Acharya from Nepal graced the occasion and offered prabachan on Bhagawat Geeta and Vedas, while Bhutanese yogi Kamal Gurung preached the importance of Yoga.

Pancha Kanya and Mandhap Puja marked the opening ceremony, added Giri.

Including Nepalese and Indian communities, Bhutanese devotees of Hindu and Buddhist faith gathered from all over the United Kingdom to be a part of the event.

According to Giri, various cultural activities like sangini, balan and recitation of religious and literary poems, aimed at guiding future generation towards the protection and promotion of culture, were important highlights.

During the closing ceremony, the association honored senior citizens and intellectuals, and also distributed certificates of appreciation to all volunteers and community workers involved.

The community also welcomed newly arrived refugees from camps on the second day of the program.

The main theme of the Purana was to offer prayers for world peace and prosperity and a wish by the community members that no regime be ever allowed to create refugees anywhere in the world.

Picture courtesy : Bhutanese Welfare Association in the UK

Fatal accident in Idaho killed two

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Fatal accident in Idaho killed two

A fatal accident took place in Idaho, Thursday August 30, at approximately 3:46 pm according to Idaho State Police.  A maroon Mazda protégé and a red Ford focus crashed on Interstate 84 east near mile post 134.5 in Gooding County.

The maroon Mazda was on the median side partially on the lane of travel. The red Ford was traveling east while it rear ended the stationary vehicle causing the Mazda to go down into the median and the Ford to roll and land on its side, reports a local radio.

The injured were transported by air and ground ambulance. Two of the passengers succumbed to their injuries right on the crash scene. The deceased are identified as Sha Bahadur’s wife and his second son.

According to the family source, the Mazda protégé is owned by Sha Bahadur Darjee (Kancha Damai), originally from Lalai block of Sarpang district in Bhutan. The Darjee family of five was relocated in Twin Falls a year ago from Goldhap Camp.

At the time of crash, the car was driven by his eldest son, Kamal. The family was returning from Boise after completing their fingerprints for Green Card application. Sha Bdr and his youngest son were air lifted to St. Alphonsus hospital in Boise. It is learnt that Sha Bdr’s condition is critical at this hour while his youngest son’s condition is stable. Kamal, who got out of the car to inspect flat tire at the time of this incident, has suffered minor injury.

East bound Interstate 84 was blocked for approximately two and a half hours.

With inputs from Deo Thapa from Twin Falls city.

First woman Dzongda assumes office

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First woman Dzongda assumes office

The country’s first woman Dzongda, Ngawang Pem, officially assumed office today. His Majesty the King had appointed her as Tsirang Dzongda on the 26th of last month.

Prior to her current appointment, Ngawang Pem served as the Chief Human Resource Officer with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests.

Courtesy : BBS

EC : both the parties are eligible

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EC : both the parties are eligible

Following weeks-long review of financial status and accounts of both the parties – Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) – the Election Commission said, they are eligible for contesting 2013 general elections.

The Commission has said that status of both the parties “remain unaffected”.

“We would like to state that the status of the parties will remain unaffected, after the financial liabilities are properly taken care. I would like put on record that PDP with major liabilities made utmost and genuine effort in resolving it,” said the Chief Election Commissioner, Kunzang Wangdi, as he also remembered to laud political contributions of former PDP President Sangay Ngedup.

PDP cleared the state loans weeks after the set deadline.

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