A Thromde (Dzongkha: ཁྲོམ་སྡེ་; Wylie: khrom-sde) is a second-level administrative division in Bhutan. The legal administrative status of thromdes was most recently codified under the Local Government Act of 2009, and the role of thromdes in elections in Bhutan was defined in the Election Act of 2008.
Governance
Thromde administration is a product of the Bhutanese program of decentralization and devolution of power and authority. Thromdes are administered independently by a Thromde Tshogde if sufficiently developed and populated (Class A Thromdes); or directly by Dzongkhag Administration or the Gewog Administration as decided by the Government (Class B Thromdes and Yenlag Thromdes). From time to time, Parliament decides the boundaries of Thromde in consultation with the National Land Commission Secretariat and local authorities.
Each Thromde Tshogde is composed of seven to ten elected members and headed by a Thrompon. Thromde Tshogdes are empowered to regulate advertising, enforce public health and safety rules, and to levy taxes on land, property, property transfer (sales tax) and, "betterment." The municipal governments are also authorized to levy special taxes on vacant and underdeveloped land to encourage development, and to raise and spend money in to promote local economic development.
The administrations overseeing Class B Thromdes and Yenlag Thromdes are tasked with encouraging and overseeing their progressive development into Class A Thromdes – locally governed municipalities.
Although Class A and Class B Thromdes were established ahead of local elections in 2011, Yenlag Thromdes were to be declared only after the second parliamentary elections in 2013. This would be followed by another delimitation of the 16 Dzongkhag Thromdes (Class B) and a review of chiwog numbers and boundaries affected by the declaration of the Yenlag Thromdes. In 2015 a list was approved by parliament of updated Dzongkhag and Yenlag Thromdes boundaries.see the recent list of "Approved Dzongkhag and Yenlag Thromde Boundaries by 5th Session of the 2nd Parliament in the joint sitting on 10th June 2015" http://www.mowhs.gov.bt/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/dzongkhag-yenlag-thromdey.pdf As of 2017 there are only four self-governing Thromdes (Dzongkhag Thromde class A): Thimphu, Phuentsholing, Gelephu and Samdrup Jongkhar.Local Government Directory at http://gov.bt/
History Under the Geog Yargay Tshochung of 2002, gewog administration included non-votingTshogpa, representatives of villages or village clusters. Through the enactment of the Act of 2009, gewogs were divided administratively into representatives by chiwogs, or village groups.
The Local Government Act of 2007 was the first piece of Bhutanese legislation to provide distinctions among thromdes, dividing them into two classes: Dzongkhag Thromdes, which lacked the developmental capacity to form administrations in their own right; and Gyelong Thromdes, which were independent, non-legislating municipalities administered by a Gyelyong Thromde Tshogdu (Gyelyong administration). Each Gyelong administration was headed by an Executive Secretary. The administrative role of Gyelong Thromde Tshogdus were largely analogous to later roles for more developed municipalities.
The Constitution of 2008 confirmed the status of thromdes, providing for Thromde Tshogdes as the most basic level of some local government administration; for other thromdes, administration was provided directly through Dzongkhag Thromde representation by one elected member from Dzongkhag Thromdes, and a second from Dzongkhag Yenlag Thromdes. The Constitution provided the basic legal framework for thromde administrations in the terms that continue today.
List of Thromdes The following is a list of thromdes by dzongkhag, gewog, and rank:this list is mainly based on Election Commission information; for duly approved thromde boundaries see the info on the website of the Ministry of Works and Human Settlements http://www.mowhs.gov.bt/publications/approved-thromde-and-boundaries/ for a 2017 list of thromdes see publication by the Ministry of Finance on (Land) Compensation rates http://www.mof.gov.bt/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/CR-2017.pdf Dzongkhag Gewog Thromdewhere available the Thromde name as per Ministry of Works and Human Settlements is given as alternative, see http://www.mowhs.gov.bt/publications/approved-thromde-and-boundaries/ Rank Bumthang Chhoekhorཆོས་འཁོར་ Jakar or Bumthang Dzongkhag ThromdeClass B Chhukha Bjachhoབྱག་ཕྱོགས་ Tsimasham Yenlag Thromde Phuentsholingཕུན་ཚོགས་གླིང་ Phuentsholing Dzongkhag ThromdeClass A Samphelingབསམ་འཕེལ་གླིང་ Dagana Goshiསྒོ་བཞི་ Daga or Dagana Dzongkhag ThromdeClass B Lhamoy Zingkhaསྒོ་བཞི་ Lhamoyzhingkha Yenlag Thromde Gasa Khatoeཁ་སྟོད་ Gasa Dzongkhag ThromdeClass B Khatoeཁ་སྟོད་ Damji Yenlag Thromde Haa Katshoསྐར་ཚོགས་ Ha or Haa Dzongkhag ThromdeClass B Uesuདབུས་སུ་ Sama ས་དམར་་ Jyenkana Yenlag Thromde Lhuentse Gangzurསྒང་ཟུར་ Lhuentse Dzongkhag ThromdeClass B Tsenkharསྒང་ཟུར་ Autsho Yenlag Thromde Mongar Mongarམོང་སྒར་ Mongar Dzongkhag ThromdeClass B Ngatshangསྔ་ཚང་ Yadi Yenlag Thromde Paro Wangchangཝང་ལྕང་ Paro Dzongkhag ThromdeClass B Pema Gatshel Shumarཤུ་མར་ Pemagatshel Dzongkhag ThromdeClass B Punakha Gumaགུ་མ་ Punakha Dzongkhag ThromdeClass B Gumaགུ་མ་ Lobeysa Yenlag Thromde Samdrup Jongkhar Dewathangདབེ་བ་ཐང་ Samdrup Jongkhar Dzongkhag ThromdeClass A Dewathang or Deothang (merged with Samdrup Jongkhar Thromde)approved thromdes & boundaries 2010, part 1 on the website of the Ministry of Works and Human Settlements http://www.mowhs.gov.bt/publications/approved-thromde-and-boundaries/ Yenlag Thromde Phuentshothangཕུན་ཚོགས་ཐང Samdrupcholing Yenlag Thromde Samtse Samtseབསམ་རྩེ་ Samtse Dzongkhag ThromdeClass B Phuentshogpelriཕུན་ཚོགས་དབལ་རི་་ Gomtu Yenlag Thromde Sarpang Gelephuདགེ་ལེགས་ཕུ་ Gelephu Dzongkhag ThromdeClass A Gakiling, Shompangkha Sarpangsee approved thromdes & boundaries 2010, part 3, and 2015 revisions on the website of the Ministry of Works and Human Settlements http://www.mowhs.gov.bt/publications/approved-thromde-and-boundaries/ Dzongkhag ThromdeClass B Thimphu Changལྕང་ Thimphu Dzongkhag ThromdeClass A Kawangཀ་ཝང་ Mewangསྨད་ཝང Khasadrapchu Yenlag Thromde Trashigang Samkharབསམ་མཁར་ Trashigang Dzongkhag ThromdeClass B Shongpu་ཤོང་ཕུག Rangjung Yenlag Thromde Trashi Yangtse Bumdelingབུམ་སྡེ་གླིང་ Trashiyangtse Dzongkhag ThromdeClass B Khamdangབུམ་སྡེ་གླིང་ Duksumnew thromdes & boundaries 2015 on the website of the Ministry of Works and Human Settlements http://www.mowhs.gov.bt/publications/approved-thromde-and-boundaries/ Yenlag Thromde Trongsa Nubiནུ་སྦིས་ Trongsa Dzongkhag ThromdeClass B Dragteng་བྲག་སྟེང Kuengarabten Yenlag Thromde Tsirang Kikhorthangདཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ཐང་ Damphu Dzongkhag ThromdeClass B Mendrelgangམནྜལ་སྒང Mendrelgang Yenlag Thromde Wangdue Phodrang Thedtshoཐེད་ཚོ་ Wangdue Phodrang Dzongkhag ThromdeClass B Wangdue Phodrang Dangchhuཐེད་ཚོ་ Nobding Yenlag Thromde Zhemgang Trongཀྲོང་ Zhemgang Dzongkhag ThromdeClass B Nganglaངང་ལ་ Panbang Yenlag Thromde
See also Dzongkhag Dungkhag Gewog Chiwog Bhutanese legislation Local Government Act of Bhutan 2009
References