NEW DELHI: A delegation from Ladakh has met a panel of the Ministry of Home Affairs and presented a four-point agenda ahead of the High-Powered Committee (HPC) meeting on the Union Territory.
The six-member team that met the home ministry panel headed by Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai presented an agenda that included statehood, special status for the Union Territory under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, separate Lok Sabha seats for Leh and Kargil, and job reservation for locals.
The meeting comes as a positive development for the region, especially after the dialogues between the representatives of Ladakh and the Centre were stalled almost 22 months back. Monday’s meeting was the first direct and official meeting of the MHA with Ladakh leaders after August 29, 2021.
According to sources, “The delegation of Ladakh, however, insisted on the inclusion of the four-point agenda as an essential prerequisite for them to participate in the meeting with the HPC members.”
The delegation from Ladakh included two-time Lok Sabha MP Thupstan Chhewang, former ministers in erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir Chering Dorjay and Nawang Rigzin Jora, former minister Qamar Ali Akhoon, former MLA Haji Asgar Ali Karbalai, and activist Sajjad Kargili.
Chhewang, Dorjay and Jora represented Leh Apex Body (LAB) and Akhoon, Karbalai and Kargili represented Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA). The Ladakh leaders informed the panel about the threats to the tribal culture and environment of the region if it was not brought under the Sixth Schedule, which provides for greater administrative and political autonomy to certain tribal areas.
The MHA had on January 3 set up a high-powered committee headed by Rai, which also included the former Ladakh lieutenant governor RK Mathur, Ladakh MP Jamyang Tsering Namgayal and other leaders from Leh and Kargil.
But the LAB and KDA, in a meeting on January 7, decided to boycott the HPC on the ground that neither their agenda nor the members recommended by them were included in it. Later, the LAB and KDA sent the names they wanted to include in the HPC to the Union Home Ministry.
Both LAB and KDA had earlier held joint protests in Jammu, followed by a demonstration at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, to pitch for their demands. Last year, both Autonomous Hill Development Councils of Leh and Kargil had passed separate resolutions seeking Sixth Schedule-like status to Ladakh.