Ladakh Proposes Roadmap For Statehood, Sixth Schedule; Centre Promises To Talk 

The seekers of Ladakh statehood have proposed a road map that outlines the composition of the new state as well as the autonomous district councils which would have powers to frame laws to protect the rights of the local people over their land.

The Leh Apex Body (LAB) and the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA), two groups which have been at the forefront of protests for seeking the statehood and protections under the Sixth Schedule for the Union Territory (UT) of Ladakh, prepared the plan in collaboration.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has assured the talks would resume between the Ladakhi leadership and the MHA on the draft proposal that was submitted to the Central government on November 14.

The LAB and KDA submit that elections should be held after a delimitation exercise is completed to carve out 30 assembly seats in the region.

For the formation of the state, it has been urged that the Parliament may enact the State of Ladakh Act. The draft proposal specifies that delimitation should be carried out by the Election Commission of India (ECI) in consultation with the associate members from the hill development councils of Leh and Kargil and the Lok Sabha MP. 

The associate members, however, shall have no right to vote while the new constituencies are carved out to raise their numbers to 30 from the 4 that existed in Ladakh when it was part of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. It has been further proposed that the hill development councils in Leh and Kargil should be designated as autonomous district councils under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, and a separate Ladakh cadre must be created to depute the  IAS and IPS officers to the region.

The draft proposal has come after one round of talks between the MHA officials and the members of LAB and KDA that followed the protests in September this year over the demand for statehood and the Sixth Schedule. On September 24, the youth took out a protest rally, and the angry mob torched the BJP office and damaged several government buildings during the clashes with security forces. Four people were killed while several others were injured during the protests, with a judicial inquiry currently underway to probe the allegations of use of force by police on the peaceful demonstration.

Among the other demands of the LAB and KDA are the release of climate activist Sonam Wangchuk, who sat on a hunger strike during the September protest in Leh town in support of the demand of statehood and the Sixth Schedule, and has been lodged at a jail in Rajasthan under the National Security Act.

Gelek Phunchok, a LAB organising committee member, says that the Ladakhi leadership has forwarded the draft of the demands to the Ministry of Home Affairs, which is under their consideration. The draft, he says,  was sent to the MHA last month, and they have been awaiting the response from the Central government to begin fresh talks over their Sixth Schedule and statehood demand.

Ladakh MP, Haji Haneefa, however, says that he recently called on Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who has assured him that the Central government will begin the talks shortly with the Ladakhi leadership. Haneefa says that the meeting of the subcommittee of the MHA is expected shortly, which will be followed by talks with the Ministry’s high-powered committee on their demand for statehood and the Sixth Schedule.

“We have submitted a draft to the MHA, which is under their consideration.  The last meeting, which was held with the officials of the MHA, was done in a cordial atmosphere where a presentation was given about Article 371 and the Sixth Schedule, and we are hoping that a fresh meeting will start shortly,” he says.

Several BJP leaders earlier said that the Central government would consider extending the benefits of Article 371 to Ladakh to grant the law-making powers to the region to safeguard the rights of local people over jobs and land. As per the draft framework, the announcement of statehood has to be first made by the Central government, which will be followed by the delimitation exercise to increase the number of seats, and then the elections could be subsequently held in the region.

Former MLA and the Co-chairman of KDA,  Asgar Karbalai, says that the delimitation would not take much time and could be completed within a year.  “The Central government would have to announce the statehood, which will be followed by the delimitation exercise to notify 30 assembly constituencies on which the elections would be held,” he says.

As per the draft, the Ladakh region, which was part of the erstwhile state of Jammu and  Kashmir, had stakes in the law-making process through elected MLAs and the representation in the Legislative Council, which has, however, ceased since it became a UT on August 5, 2019.

The Ladakhi leadership has further sought that after the initial designation of hill councils of Leh and  Kargil as autonomous district councils under Schedule VIA, which could be inserted through the 129th Constitution Amendment Act,  subsequently, such councils could also be constituted in other districts of the region.

Authorities earlier announced five new districts for the Ladakh region apart from Leh and Kargil. Three new districts have been formed in  Leh and two in Kargil,  but there is also a demand to create two more districts in Kargil due to its large area.

Furthermore, it has been spelled out that the Ladakh Assembly would have the powers to frame laws in all other areas, while the autonomous district councils will be entrusted with the job to make laws over matters of land, customs, and culture of the Ladakh region. This is in line with the key demand of the people that Ladakh should have the powers to make laws to safeguard rights over land and to deny it to non-locals. The autonomous district councils will also have powers to collect taxes and fees and credit them in the consolidated fund of the state.

For meeting its financial needs, it has been specified that the region should get the grant-in-aid and the share from the Union duties of excise, estate duty, and income tax.

Chering Dorjay, co-chairman of LAB, says that they have sought a separate cadre for gazetted services recruitment in Ladakh and the posting of IAS and IPS officers to the UT on a deputation basis. He adds that LAB and KDA have also demanded that Ladakh should have a common High Court with the UT of Jammu and Kashmir.

The draft proposal has spelled out the possibility of holding the sitting of high court benches in Ladakh. According to local leaders, they have asked for a common high court with Jammu and Kashmir as the number of court cases was less there.

The KDA and the LAB have also demanded that the number of parliamentary seats should be increased to two,  one each for Kargil and Ladakh, from the existing one, to enable the elected MPs to better address the concerns of the region.

Haneefa says that the territory of Ladakh is very large, which throws up challenges for elected representatives to reach out to the people, due to which  “we have sought that the number of parliamentary seats should be increased to two.”