6th Schedule key issue for Congress’s Ladakh candidate

Leh, May 14

Congress candidate from the Ladakh Lok Sabha seat, Tsering Namgyal, is contesting the election on a four-point agenda for the Union territory, the key among which is the fight for implementation of the 6th Schedule of the Constitution that guarantees land and job for the locals.

The four-point agenda also includes statehood demand, a public service commission for Ladakh and separate Lok Sabha seats for Leh and Kargil districts.

Stressing the INDIA bloc was committed to safeguarding the rights of the people of Ladakh, he said there is discontent among the populace following the failure of talks involving Home Minister Amit Shah and representatives of Leh Apex Body and Kargil Democratic Alliance over the demand for the 6th Schedule of the Constitution.

“The dialogue stopped there and so did our hope… people are now worried and angry,” Namgyal said.

“At the time of Ladakh’s transition into a Union Territory, people danced and sang. Today, people are crying. People had hopes that our youth would get jobs and that ecology would be protected. But at the end of the day people are not happy with this government,” said Namgyal, the leader of the opposition in the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council.

The unfulfilled promises of attaining the 6th Schedule status pledged by the BJP during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and subsequent hill development council elections have fuelled a shift from jubilation to discontent, prompting a wave of protests throughout the region.

“People hoped for a new beginning, but the dialogue did not go the way it should have. The government delayed it first, kept it hanging till the Model Code of Conduct came into place, and at the last moment, our leaders were called for talks,” said Namgyal.

Citing unmet expectations regarding job opportunities, land rights and environmental preservation he alleged that there was a lack of transparency in budgetary allocation and a failure to empower the hill councils effectively.

The Congress candidate accused the BJP of fooling the people of Ladakh. “People of Ladakh are aware… they will not believe the false promises. People will vote in favour of the four-point agenda,” he said.