Ladakh groups term industrial land allotment policy ‘anti-local’

Arjun Sharma

Jammu, November 9

A controversy has broken out after the administration recently rolled out the draft industrial land allotment policy for Ladakh, with the local groups alleging that their interests will be compromised.

After the land allotment policy was brought in the public domain for feedback, both the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils (LAHDC) of Leh and Kargil district alleged that the policy will help the outsiders in getting land in the UT. They also alleged that the Councils, which hold the power of allotting the land for any industrial or other purpose, will lose their role.

Policy pro-outsiders: Locals

• The industrial land allotment policy was recently brought in the public domain by the Ladakh administration for feedback
• Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils of Leh and Kargil allege policy will help the outsiders in getting land in UT
• Councils, which hold the power of allotting land for any industrial or other purpose, fear that they will lose their role
• Admn claims policy has been brought to help locals keeping in mind the goal of achieving carbon neutrality for the region

However, the administration is claiming that the policy has been framed keeping in mind the local population and environment of the Union Territory.

Pawan Kotwal, who is Advisor to the Lt Governor of Ladakh, said the policy has been brought to help the locals keeping in mind the goal of the administration in achieving carbon neutrality for the region.

In a statement, Kotwal said the industrial land allotment policy will help in growth of local economy and raise the standard of the people. “To provide jobs to the locals, we need to have industries—both manufacturing and service sector. As Ladakh is a tourist destination, our focus is on new hotels, resorts and other infrastructure which can help the economy,” said Kotwal.

He said that as per the policy, only locals will have the say in service sector which has been reserved for them. “Only manufacturing sector is open to outsiders but even there preference will be given to locals. Moreover there is little scope of manufacturing sector in the region as we also have to focus on low pollution creating units only,” the Advisor said in a statement.

Leh Apex Body (LAB) and Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA), which are already fighting for Sixth Schedule and statehood for Ladakh, have objected to some points of the policy and wish to recommend changes. A meeting of LAB was held recently in which the policy was discussed after which a controversy broke out. Even the KDA has asked to not allow outsiders in any sector.

As per the draft policy document: “Industrial unit seeking investment in the service sector as mentioned in the Positive list annexed at Annexure-II of The Ladakh Sustainable Industrial Policy 2022-27 shall be permitted only for local entrepreneurs of Ladakh. For industrial units seeking investment in the manufacturing sector, outside entrepreneurs may be permitted. However, preference may be given to the local entrepreneurs”.

Kotwal stressed that only land inside Industrial Estates will be allotted by the Industries Department while the land outside it will be allotted by LAHDC. “These are the safeguards which are already present. The service sector has been taken care of as locals may not be having that much capital to open a hotel or a resort. We have reserved it for locals so that no outsiders make investments in service industry” he said.

The administration is also focusing on processing of local crops like sea-buckthorn, apricot and medicinal herbs. Dairy industry and prefabricated items have also been identified by the administration to help the locals.

“Even as all the rights of locals have been protected, the policy has been kept in public domain so that more insights and ideas can be received by Ladakhis. We are focusing on non-polluting industries. Reservation has also been kept for women,” the Advisor said.