Ladakh’s journey from hill council to UT still it demands more

JAMMU: From granting a status of Autonomous Hill Council in 1993, a separate revenue and administrative unit in February 2019 and finally realizing its long pending demand of Union Terrorist, Ladakh has got what it demanded from New Delhi.

One of the most sparsely populated regions in Jammu and Kashmir and the highest plateau in the state, always demand more, it seems.
Following the demand of Ladakhi people to make Leh District a new Indian Union Territory because of its religious and cultural differences with the rest of Jammu and Kashmir, in October 1993, Union Government and the state government agreed to grant Ladakh the status of Autonomous Hill Council.
The council came into being with the holding of elections on 28 August 1995. The inaugural meeting of the council was held at Leh on 3 September 1995.
An Autonomous Hill Council has also been established in neighboring Kargil District. The Hill Council in Kargil came in to existence in July 2003.
On February 8, 2019, the Jammu and Kashmir administration created a separate division for Ladakh, following the demand of Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils (LAHDC) Leh and Kargil.
Similarly, realizing decades old demand, on August 5th the union government revoked Article 370, taking away the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and proposed its bifurcation into two Union territories -- Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
Making the announcement in Parliament, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the Union territory of Ladakh will have no legislature like Chandigarh while the other one of Jammu and Kashmir will have a unicameral legislature like Delhi and Puducherry.
However, the decades old demand of people addressed but the some political leaders, who promised UT status to the Ladakh in their election rally, are upset with decision of union government.
It seems that they demand Ladakh with unicameral legislature and alleged that with announcement of UT status to Ladakh, the union government has snatched the political representation.
Former MLA Haji Asgar Ali Karbalai said, “With announcement of UT status to Ladakh unfortunately the political representational rights snatched. They make us mic less. In future we will aware people that BJP has ceased their right to vote.
Sajja Hussain, who was backed by National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Parliamentary elections 2019, said “Government of India (GOI) has deprived us from representation. Our representation has impelled has badly in unconstitutional way. We will continue our struggle against the unconstitutional move of the government,” he said.