Ladakh administration adopting delaying tactics: Himachal minister

Shimla, February 21

Despite the best efforts of the Himachal Pradesh Government to resolve the boundary dispute with Ladakh, the Ladakh administration is adopting delaying tactics and not coming forward to resolve the issue seriously.

Boundary dispute

• An interstate boundary dispute/encroachment by Ladakh was noticed at the Sarchu and Shinkula area of Lahaul Spiti in 2014
• The issue was taken up by the government with the J&K Govt and subsequently with the Government of India and the Survey of India for its resolution

This information was furnished by Revenue Minister Jagat Singh Negi in a written reply to a query by Ravi Thakur during Question Hour in the Vidhan Sabha today. “In this regard, two demarcation dates were fixed by the Survey of India in August and October 2023, but the Ladakh administration did not participate in it. Thus, the demarcation could not take place,” he said.

He added that continuous efforts were made by the state government to demarcate the inter-state boundaries as per the survey maps of Surveyor General of India, but the Ladakh administration was not cooperating.

However, Negi said the police and forest departments had now proposed to set up temporary structures in the border area. “The Himachal Government has conveyed approval to establish a temporary police post at Sarchu under the Keylong police station (Lahaul-Spiti) and forest department had allotted Rs 5 lakh for installation of a pre-fabricated trekkers hut in un-demarcated protected forest (UPF) at Shinkula,” he stated.

Replying to a query by Theog MLA Kuldeep Rathore, Negi said Rs 78 crore was still pending under the Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) for procurement of apples, including Rs 63 crore for this year and Rs 15 crore for previous years. “The minister said this year a total of 52,915 metric tonnes of apples were procured under the MIS worth Rs 63.49 crore.

Rathore pointed out that payments to apple growers were pending for the last five years and they were facing a lot of inconvenience as they had raised loans from banks. He added that Rs 39 crore of the HPMC and Rs 22 crore of Himfed dues were still to be disbursed to the growers who sold fruit under the MIS to the two agencies. He also lamented that fertilisers and other agricultural inputs were being sold at higher rates by HIMFED than those available in the open market.

Replying to a query by Bharmour MLA Janak Raj, the CM said Rs 356.89 crore had been collected through 8,31,028 challans under various sections of the Motor Vehicles Act in 2022-23.