New Year filled with high hopes for development
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: January 03, 2023 -

AT the start of 2022, there were fears of a third wave of the Covid pandemic, which fortunately did not happen and - normal life continued full throttle after two years of trepidation.

Similarly, the world just welcomed the New Year amid strong apprehension that the spike in number of Covid-19 cases in some countries might get virulent and affect normalcy, with many countries including India mandating random screening of air travellers especially from China and a handful of Asian nations.

With a case of the omicron sub-variant responsible for the fresh spike already detected in Gujarat, it is obvious that the government authorities will have to remain on high alert and for the public to continue following the basic preventive steps.

Nevertheless, it is unlikely that the government will impose stringent restrictive measures as it would mean derailment of economic activities and cause hardships to the commoners, who would be praying that the pandemic remains under control.

Of course, the pandemic instilled a sense of entrepreneurial spirit as many youngsters, especially those who returned to their native states after years of working in mainland parts of the country or after losing their jobs to the pandemic, took up diverse economic activities, which they perceived were for the illiterate or semi-literate section of the population.

From venturing into agriculture and poultry farming to running service enterprises and setting up food businesses, the returnees have changed the landscape and showcased that the region has strong potential for successful start-ups, with or without financial and material assistance from the governments concerned.

Apart from both distress and relief brought on by Covid-19, the northeast region had its fair share of tragic incidents with the Noney landslide, perhaps topping the chart as over 50 military personnel and civilians lost their lives.

The after-effects of environmental degradation were also reflected in the massive floods at Dima Hasao and Silchar in Assam, landslides of varying degrees that occurred in Manipur, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh as well as the drought-like situation that hit almost all the north-eastern states, all a grim reminder of the scale of climate change being experienced across the world.

However, there is every reason to believe that year 2023 would be better than the previous ones in the region, where the armed conflict situation is no more a major issue compared to few years back when northeast was considered a hostile region.

As such, everybody would be hoping that the advent of New Year will see the regional governments accord priority to further improvement of the situation and bring development in the real sense of the term.

For Manipur, preventing escalation of socio-ethnic tension on account of multiple unsolved issues will remain the biggest challenge for the government's there has been a tendency among certain organisations magnifying even petty issues and propagating ethnicity-centric goals.

As there has been continuous anxiety over how the peace talks between the Centre and the Naga rebel outfits would evolve in the coming months, it could be safely stated that in case of any decision detrimental to interest and sentiment of the non-Naga communities then there would be serious disturbance to socio-political stability in the region.