Civil society leaders from Ladakh raised the issues of disempowerment of local people, trust deficit in the name of development, reservation for local people in jobs, electoral representation, and tribal status for the Union Territory at the first structured meeting, at least since 2020, with officials from the Union Home Ministry on Monday.
A 14-member delegation comprising members from the Leh Apex Body (LAB) and the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) met Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai and Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla in Delhi for an hour and a half.
The Ministry asked the leaders to submit their demands in writing and assured them of frequent meetings to resolve the issues, while the members called for a time frame for when the demands would be met, said members who attended the meeting.
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Thupstan Chhewang, former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and an influential leader in Ladakh, told The Hindu that the officials appealed to them to not hold protests and agitations as official talks were on. He added that mobilisation of people up to the block level by making them aware of the demands was already on.
“This was the first structured meeting called by the Ministry. Bureaucratic overreach is one of the major concerns. Our people do not have a say in how the budget is spent or the projects planned. The UT administration brought an industrial policy without consulting us. Statehood is the only solution as safeguards provided under Article 370 are no longer there,” Mr. Chhewang said, adding that if the demands were not met then protests would resume.
‘Empower local people’
Sajjad Kargili of the KDA said that the Ladakh Resident Certificate, issued to permanent residents of the Union Territory, should be a prerequisite for government jobs.
“Ladakh does not have a Public Service Commission, now the government is planning to send officers from the DANICS (Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Island Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli) here. The administration talks about development, but at what cost? Development is there in China as well, democracy will be established only when the local people are empowered,” Mr. Kargili said.
Chering Dorjay Lakrook, one of the members of the LAB who resigned from the BJP in 2020, said that out of the ₹6,000-crore allocated budget for Ladakh, the two hills councils — the Ladakh Autonomous Hill District Council (LAHDC) of Leh and Kargil — only have a say in 10% of the budget.
“The UT administration wants to establish a solar park on Leh-Manali road. All we are saying is move this project to Ladakh-Himachal border. This project will destroy the pashmina industry as nomads and wildlife are dependent on the rich land. The ecology is fragile. The solar panels will need lots of water to be cleaned every day. Where will the water come from? Bureaucrats sent from outside will not care for these details,” Mr. Lakrook said.
Ladakh, comprising the Muslim-majority Kargil district and the Buddhist-majority Leh district, was made a Union Territory after the Union government ended the special constitutional position granted to the the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and split it into two Union Territories on August 5, 2019.
In the past four years, Buddhists and Shia Muslims from Leh and Kargil, respectively have jointly protested seeking statehood for Ladakh, inclusion of Ladakh in the Sixth Schedule of the constitution, job reservation for local people, and a parliamentary seat each for Leh and Kargil.
On November 30, the Union Home Ministry constituted a high-powered committee led by Mr. Rai. It agreed to examine the demand of civil society groups in Ladakh to provide “constitutional safeguards” to the Union Territory.
