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News Details People of Ladakh reiterate granting UT status to their region leaders of various religious groups meet to discuss issue, submit a memorandum to PM



Leh (Ladakh), August 14, (Scoop News)-Barely two days after when Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, announced his major policy on resolution of Kashmir in All Party Meet in New Delhi, leaders of various major religious groups representing Buddhist, Shia, Sunni and Christian communities of Ladakh region reiterated their demand for grant of Union Territory (UT) status for the region.



On behalf of tribal people of Ladakh, the leaders in a memorandum appealed to Mr Modi to address the problems faced by them for past several decades.

“We have submitted countless representations periodically to various government officials, union and state ministers and also to those who were at the helm of affairs from to time. But nothing substantial has been communicated to us till date,” they said.



“In the last nearly seven decades of Independence, we the people of Ladakh, not only have suffered rampant Kashmiri political domination but also severe drive of separatism. In the absence of any study which has assessed Ladakh’s problems from the nationalistic and political perspective, our endeavour is three fold. Firstly, we intend to highlight the emergence and assertion of national identity, patriotism and national integration among the Ladakhi towards our motherland. Secondly, we want to have an objective analyses of the political exploitation of the people of Ladakh and Ladakh’s resistance movement towards Kashmiri sub nationalism,” the memorandum stated.



“Ladakhis have since then consistently been demanding separation from the state of Jammu and Kashmir and asking for the status of UT with legislature. The Government of India (GoI), however, never responded favourably to our sincere conviction; instead they made us to be governed by Kashmiris during these decades to our utter ruin. Sheikh Abdullah’s government divided Ladakh on communal lines in 1979 by creating two separated districts of Leh and Kargil with Buddhist and Muslim majorities respectively. Subsequently, they encouraged communalization of Ladakh’s political, social and cultural life. Such policies have severely challenged our age old communal harmony and secular credentials. Therefore, our major struggle in the post independence period has been to have, an administration in Ladakh to be controlled directly by the Union Government,” the leaders maintained.



“Our humble submission is that we are neither the problem nor part of any problem involving the state. Rather we are the solution. We firmly believe that all of us live only when India lives. Our commitment to patriotism is firm and unequivocal. Our people and soldiers have never hesitated to make supreme sacrifice in the discharge of their duties towards the country. We shall never fail the nation. We want to convert the entire Ladakh region into a land of abundant peace and prosperity and example worth emulating for rest of the country. Under these circumstances, we are left with no choice but to reiterate our longstanding demand for granting UT status to Ladakh, which would guarantee us an administrative set up to run our own affairs and safeguard our interests,” they demanded.

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