Agitating Ladakh Leaders Allege Attempts By UT Administration To Sabotage Their Talks With Centre

KARGIL, Apr 18: Ahead of their next meeting with high powered committee (HPC) of Union home ministry next month, agitating Ladakhi leadership on Friday claimed that the Union Territory administration is making attempts to sabotage the dialogue.
However, the leaders representing the Leh Apex Body (LAB) and Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) said they are hopeful of a positive outcome of the talks which is necessary for the people of Ladakh and their coming generations.
The LAB and KDA are jointly spearheading an agitation over the past four years in support of their four-point agenda including statehood, sixth schedule status, dedicated Public Service Commission (PSC) and two parliamentary seats.
Addressing a press conference after a joint meeting here, Chairman of LAB Tsering Lakruk and Co-Chairman of KDA Asgar Karbalai reposed their faith in the dialogue and expressed confidence of a positive outcome of the talks scheduled for May 20 in Delhi.
“We think that they (central government) are not behaving properly with the Ladakhis. Even though a meeting has been fixed on May 20 after a gap of several months, we are hopeful that all issues related to recruitment, reservations and domicile that we have already conveyed will be finalised and documented,” Karbalai said.
He said they are also hopeful that the main issue of statehood and the sixth scheduled for the region will also be taken up in the upcoming meeting.
However, he said the Ladakh UT administration is trying to implement its own agenda by implementing policies related to industry and solar plants which is “totally unacceptable” to the people of Ladakh.
“There is a clear attempt on the part of UT administration of Ladakh, especially Chief Secretary Pawan Kotwal, to sabotage the talks and it is not acceptable to us,” he said and threatened mass agitation against any attempt to undermine the leadership and sabotage the talks.
“Our four-point agenda is linked to the future of Ladakh, its people and the coming generations… We hope the government will not compel us to protest on the streets,” Karbalai said.
Referring to the last meeting with the union ministry officials in January, he said they talked about the reservation and domicile, and conveyed that 95 per cent of the seats should be reserved for the youth of Ladakh and five per cent to domicile holders with a cut-off date of 1989.
“We have not received any response from the government as the meeting scheduled for March 15 could not be held. Now it is scheduled for May 20,” he said, adding that the delay was from the central government.
The two leaders said that in the last meeting, they had decided to further strengthen their coordination by holding regular meetings, at least once a month, alternatively in Leh and Kargil, and discuss the outcome of the talks with the centre and chalk out the future strategy for statehood and sixth schedule. (Agencies)

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