Onlykashmir.in News Desk
The Leh Apex Body and Kargil Democratic Alliance have dropped their long-standing demand for full statehood for Ladakh, shifting their focus instead toward securing a full-fledged elected legislature complete with its own MLAs and Chief Minister, along with control over police and law and order, LAB chairman Chering Dorjey Lakruk said.
“We have abandoned the demand for statehood,” Dorjey told the news agency Kashmir News Trust, explaining that the two groups now intend to concentrate their efforts on winning a full-fledged elected government within the existing Union Territory framework rather than pursuing the more sweeping structural change that statehood would involve.
Dorjey said the proposed arrangement being pushed before the Centre should include an elected Legislative Assembly, directly elected MLAs and a Chief Minister to head the government, a structure that would give Ladakh’s residents a greater say in day to day governance than the current UT administrative setup allows. He added that the elected government should also be handed control over police and law and order, calling this an important part of the demand now being placed before New Delhi.
The shift comes against the backdrop of ongoing talks between the Centre and representatives of the LAB and KDA over the future governance structure of Ladakh, discussions that have continued intermittently since the region’s separation from the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. The Centre has reportedly been weighing a possible special constitutional arrangement for Ladakh that would include an elected UT-level body, though the Ladakh groups have consistently pushed for wider legislative and executive powers than what such an arrangement might initially offer.
The question of police and law and order control has remained one of the more contentious points in these discussions, with Ladakh representatives maintaining that an elected government would fall short of genuine empowerment if key governance functions remained outside its jurisdiction. Dorjey said the next round of talks between the Centre and Ladakh representatives has been scheduled for the first week of October, a meeting that is expected to carry forward the negotiations on the region’s final governance framework. The Centre’s proposed structure remains under discussion, with the eventual powers and shape of any elected body yet to be settled.
