Ladakh’s new aspirations

P Stobdan

Strategic Affairs Expert

Ladakh will be celebrating the first anniversary of its separation from J&K and becoming the newest UT of the country. August 5, 2019, was a watershed moment. UT status was a long-time demand of Ladakhis. People are upbeat. It was a historical re-enactment of Ladakh’s identity in the mosaic of Indian nationhood, but there are challenges ahead. A year down the line, the new UT administration seems to be making headway despite teething problems. The reorganisation of the state may have been a cumbersome process, especially during the harsh winter followed by the Covid-19 outbreak.

But Ladakh is not ignored anymore. After making it a UT, the Centre has allocated a colossal fund of Rs 5,958 crore for the fiscal 2020-21. It is too early to assess its achievements but changes are afoot. The administration is gearing up to implement big-ticket economic projects, ramp up infrastructure, and address employment issues. Several key projects lying in limbo for decades seemed to have been cleared, including the bottlenecks for implementing those under the PM’s Development Package.

The key issues pertain to environmental protection, developmental challenges, identity, land and job protection. There was initial apprehension about the UT status coming without legal safeguards. The expectation was that Ladakh will be covered under the Sixth Schedule, as applied to other ‘tribal areas’ in the Northeast. But that would have pushed Ladakh towards further isolation and underdevelopment. For sure, Ladakh is also not a classical tribal region to be treated as a conservation zone.

Locals do fear getting marginalised, for outsiders would be seeking opportunities in this peaceful Himalayan region after Article 370 was removed. People also fear getting discriminated against for getting jobs within Ladakh, for Ladakhis are simpler, less qualified and less assertive.

Hopefully, the MHA will soon come out with an alternative legal safeguard and also notify a ‘domicile law’ for Ladakh, similar to the one effected for UT J&K under which all Permanent Resident Certificate holders are automatically eligible for Domicile Certificate, which is now a basic eligibility condition for government recruitment. This should remove the fear of job insecurity and demographic changes in Ladakh as well.

One contentious issue is the status of the pre-existing governance body, the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC)-Kargil and LAHDC-Leh that functioned as a legislative body with financial powers to micro-manage local planning. Clarification is needed with regards to LAHDC functioning and business rules under the new UT system. The polls for the council are due in October.

The economic potentials are yet to be explored. It has vast vacant arid land. Leh district alone has 45,167 hectare of reporting area, out of which only 10,614 hectare (23%) is being brought under cultivation. The government has allocated Rs 83.38 crore this year for rural development. This should enable the administration to bring more areas under agriculture.

The Indus water resources of Zanskar, Suru, Dras, Shayok, Galwan, Chip-Chap, Chang-Chemo and other tributaries — thus far benefited only by Pakistani farmers in Punjab and Sind — should be harnessed.

Ladakh need not opt for the industrial path. Its varied agro-climatic conditions should open up prospects for horticulture and floriculture industries, to grow organic apple, apricot and pear, walnuts, almond, grapes and temperate vine fruits. Ladakh is known for its organic vegetables due to high alluvial soil availability. Investors should jump for commercial farming of high-value items like lavender, saffron and vine fruits.

The region’s myriad medicinal herbs can be opened for both grinding and extraction. The fruit residue of sea-buckthorn, rich in protein and amino acids, is known for making juice. Prospects are high for setting up mineral water plants, anti-ageing, antioxidant drinks plants.

Fixing the old issues of environmental and legal challenges is never easy. Finding ways to smoothen them would take time.

Leh district has 1.2 lakh livestock population and over 35,000 Pashmina goats and sheep. Nomadic farming could be expanded. Better technological intervention could make the local wool and woven fabric a world-class product. Boosting tourism could be a way forward to improve the local cash economy. Tourist figures initially went up from a meagre 527 in 1974 to 3.27 lakh in 2018. But in 2019, a slide of over 50 per cent in flow was witnessed. Tourism remains unpredictable, conditioned to the security environment. The uncontrolled flow of visitors also hasn’t proved sustainable due to the fragile ecosystem. However, the Centre has approved Rs 47.5 crore to boost Ladakh tourism sector and Rs 52 crore for civil aviation. Like Kashmir, Ladakh too lost its tourism season this year.

Among the mega projects, the government has announced Rs 50,000-crore grid-connected solar photo-voltaic project to harness 7,500 MW of solar power. The proposed transmission corridor will evacuate power from Pang in Ladakh to Kaithal in Haryana. The next focus should be on exploiting Ladakh’s huge hydel potentials.

A blockbuster project is to construct a 14.15-km bi-directional tunnel across Zoji-la. Another strategic project underway is the 8.8-km tunnel through the Rohtang Pass to connect Manali with Leh now named after former PM Vajpayee.

The Centre has already envisaged a plan to connect Leh with the railway. The 498-km line from Bilaspur to Leh via Manali is expected to cost Rs 22,831 crore. Ladakh fortunately does not have many high-profile corruption cases, like in J&K, but fixing the old issues embedded in J&K scams and irregularities should become a priority.

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