The National People’s Party (NPP) has launched its social media campaign to enlighten the electorates across Northeast on its agenda with the theme — “One Voice, One Northeast”.
The party has prioritised rural economy, education, youth and employment, promoting Northeast, education, environment and health as its key focus in their campaign – “Agenda for Northeast 2019”.
The three point agenda of the campaign — (a) to commit to the cause of indigenous people, minorities and the marginalised; (b) to ensure that the indigenous people and the minorities assert their ‘political say’; (c) to push for a strong political voice from the region to safeguard the interest of the people of Northeast.
On rural economy, the party envisage on the potential that lies in the rural areas of the Northeast and would push for a holistic development of the rural economy with particular focus on agriculture, horticulture and allied sector. “There is a need to strengthen rural infrastructure in social sector including health and education and the party would continue to focus on the core priority and would work to create an enabling atmosphere to promote education and health care facilities in the rural areas of the region,” the campaign states.
On youth and employment, the party states that it would encourage investment in private sector in tourism, hospitality, agriculture and IT. It also says that the party will formulate an ambitious policy to empower youth with different business and livelihood opportunities linked to rich resources of the region. The priority of the party will be to engage educated youth and professionals to harness on the opportunities, which is ample in the region.
On promoting Northeast, the party says that Northeast India is a kaleidoscope of cultural and linguistic diversity. Each state of the region has its distinctive heritage and tradition. NPP envisages to promote and safeguard the interest of the indigenous people. To curb the economic disparity in the region with synergistic focus on development.
On agriculture and logistics, the party would lay its importance and thrust on the indigenous agricultural practices, which are climate friendly and also replicate ideas and scientific interventions to boost agriculture.
“There is a need to create hope amongst our farmers, so that they are able to innovate their agriculture products and add value, which will result in better returns. There is also a need to tag and brand our farm produces, which would create stories of our products regionally, nationally and globally. Our commitment is very clear that agriculture sector would be an important area to propel development and ensure economic stability and food security. The core area of intervention will be – (a) Agriculture and Environment; (b) Animal Husbandry and Fishery; (c) Food Technology and Balancing Agricultural outputs; and (d) Marketing linkage and Economic Stability,” the press communique issued by the National People’s Party Communication Cell said.
On education, the party said in its campaign that quality of education has posed a major hurdle for development. For want of better education many communities, particularly the indigenous people are left behind. NPP embarks upon a responsibility to touch the lives of the indigenous people in particular and the minorities of the country.
On environment, the campaign says “climate change poses a real challenge to our society, our economy and our national security. We are committed to combat climate change, which affect our children, our future and us. We are committed to promote clean and sustainable energy and provide alternative livelihood opportunities to our people, particular those dependent on jhum and other forms of traditional agricultural practices, which poses threat to our ecosystem.”
On healthcare, the party said, the prevailing scenario of healthcare facilities in India is a major challenge for the people, especially those living below the poverty line and the marginalized section.
“We as party are very much concerned and aware of the issues that affects everyone. We believe that by putting our thrust on this very important subject, we will be able to address the concern of our people, particularly those who are not able to afford high cost of medical treatment,” it said.