JAMMU, May 13: The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has finally called a meeting of the High Powered Committee (HPC) on Ladakh on May 27 in New Delhi as against initially proposed date of May 20 but the Leh Apex Body (LAB) and Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) are not satisfied as they had sought two-day meeting since the sitting is being held after more than four months and their all issues are pending.
“We have received an invitation today for the HPC meeting to be chaired by Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai in New Delhi on May 27. The MHA has fixed a day’s meeting though we had written to them demanding that the meeting should be held for two days so that all issues can be discussed,” LAB co-chairman Chering Dorjay Lakruk told the Excelsior on phone from Leh.
He said the LAB and KDA leadership will meet shortly to take a call on whether to attend the meeting or not.
“We will also write afresh to the Home Ministry demanding that the meeting should be extended to two days. After getting their response, we will decide our future course of action,” Lakruk said.
Initially, the LAB sought that meeting scheduled for May 20 should be deferred in view of birthday celebrations of prominent Buddhist religious leader falling on May 19 and 20. It proposed May 23 as new date for meeting to the MHA but the latter rejected fresh date on the ground that Rai was not available in New Delhi that day.
The LAB and KDA, who are taking all decisions together, had proposed that the talks should be held for two consecutive days either on May 26 and 27 or May 27 and 28 as the dialogue has already been delayed with no meeting taking place since January 15 when last meeting was held in the Union capital.
Lakruk had written to the Joint Secretary MHA, Incharge Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh demanding that the talks should be extended to two days, instead of just one, with a day reserved for discussion on issues like domicile, jobs, PSC etc and second day for their major demands including Statehood and Sixth Schedule status.
akruk has cited that the talks are being held after more than four months and therefore they should be extended to two days and that their team is ready to stay in the capital. Lakruk was reported to have even proposed that if Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai, who is chairman of the High Powered Committee, is not available from May 26-28 for talks, the Sub Committee meeting can be held in New Delhi for discussions. It may be mentioned here that Rai is not a member of the Sub Committee.
The LAB and KDA leaders were of the view that they first want issue of domicile and reservations given to Economic Weaker Sections (EWS) settled which would clear the decks for advertisement of Government jobs especially in the gazetted cadre, an issue which has been pending since August 5, 2019 when Ladakh was separated from erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir and made a Union Territory.
The second issue is affiliation with either Union Public Services Commission (UPSC) or Jammu and Kashmir PSC pending its own dedicated PSC for recruitment in the gazetted cadre.
The LAB and KDA have proposed 1989 as deadline for treating people living in Ladakh as domiciles of the UT as against 15 years timeline fixed for Jammu and Kashmir.
On 95 percent reservations for locals, 80 percent will go to STs, 4 percent to Actual Line of Control (ALC), 10 per cent to Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), one percent to SCs and five percent to others but they too will be domiciles of Ladakh. However, no such order has been issued so far despite a decision taken in the meeting last December.
The non-gazetted recruitments in Ladakh UT were conducted on the basis of LRC (Ladakh Resident Certificate), which was replica of State Subject used in the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir of which Ladakh was third region besides Jammu and Kashmir.
However, there has been no headway on two other demands of LAB and KDA including grant of Statehood and Sixth Schedule status to Ladakh. The MHA has already briefed the Ladakh representatives that their another demand for two Parliamentary seats instead of one can be taken up only after delimitation, which is freezed since 2026, is resumed with setting up of the Commission.
