The Dewathang-Gomdar candidates Mingbo Drukpa of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Ugyen Dorji of Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) candidate humbly thanked voters gathered to witness the debate held in Samdrup Jongkhar yesterday.
The PDP candidate stressed on important matters that require to be resolved immediately if the party is given a chance to form the government. Talking on eight related topics, the candidate first pledged to bring down the poverty rate in Samdrup Jongkhar. This, the candidate said is because the dzongkhag stands fourth in terms of poverty rate.
Mingbo Drukpa said the PDP would start works within 90 days in office to eradicate poverty within the dzongkhag and country, and further the party pledges to set up a special organization to keep close tabs on the poverty reduction progress. He also talked about the PDP’s effort to kick start the economy with Economic Stimulus Plan.
He said that an important method to help alleviate poverty is giving a farmer’s loan to aspiring agriculturalist and the farmers. This is because farmers who wanted to expand their business and venture into new business got wedged without capital in hand. “Availing loans would boost their livelihood,” he added.
With more than 60% of country’s population depending on agriculture, the PDP candidate pledged to dispense power tiller, Service Utility Vehicles, build news farm roads and black top the ones that are already built.
Pertaining to poverty alleviation the candidate pledged to boost tourism in the country as this is an important means of generating hard currency. He further pledged to introduce tourism in the east since the people in the east had not benefited from tourism so far.
Mingbo Drukpa also pledged to solve the unemployment problem, promote and enhance private sector in the country, support civil servants, wipe out corruption and resolve the INR crunch.
The DPT candidate Ugyen Dorji read out the DPT’s progress on what PDP pledged to accomplish and resolve. Reading out the DPT’s Achievements, Ugyen Dorji said that during DPT’s tenure the poverty rate was alleviated from 23% to 12 % in 2012.
He also said that the DPT government enhanced tourism sector in the country and during their rule, the tourist numbers were increased to more than 100,000 tourists a year.
Regarding the youth unemployment issue which the PDP pledged to resolve, the DPT candidate said that more than 45,000 vacant posts were created to solve the unemployment issue since 2008.
Finally the candidate pledged to fulfill the party’s unfulfilled pledges if elected once again. “Many things are left to be fulfilled, if the people bestow us with a similar opportunity for yet another five years,” he added.
Ugyen Dorji said if DPT gets another chance to rule it would bring tremendous changes in the livelihood of the people and alleviate poverty in the country.
“We make pledges, only if we can fulfill,” he added.