Chushul councillor hails MHA's high-powered committee for Ladakh, says protection of jobs, land should be priority

In a tweet, MLA of Ladakh's Chushul constituency, Konchok Stanzin, on Tuesday hailed the MHA's decision to create a high-powered committee which will be focusing on issues such as ensuring land and employment for the local population.

New Delhi: A day after the Union Home Ministry set up a high-powered committee to “ensure protection of land and employment” for the people of Ladakh, Chushul councillor Konchok Stanzin hailed the decision.

“Ladakh welcomes the MHA high-powered committee to ensure protection of land and employment. There are some specific issues like protection of land and jobs for Ladakhi people and they should be the priority of the committee,” Stanzin tweeted.

Konchok Stanzin's constituency, Chushul, is a forward area at the LAC.

Set to be headed by Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai, the 17-member committee also includes RK Mathur, Ladakh Lieutenant Governor, Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, Member of Parliament (Ladakh), Chairman/CEC, Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Leh, Chairman/CEC, Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Kargil, Joint Secretary, Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh Affairs among others.

The formation of the high-powered committee assumes significance as a Parliamentary Committee has also asked the Home Ministry to examine the possibility of including Ladakh in 5th/6th Schedule.

The Home Ministry, in its reply, earlier said that the main objective for inclusion of tribal population under 5th/ 6th schedule is to ensure their overall socio-economic development, which the UT Administration (Ladakh) has already been taking care of since its creation.

“Sufficient funds are being provided to UT of Ladakh to meet its overall developmental requirements,” the MHA has said.

As per census 2011, the tribal population in the Union Territory of Ladakh is 2,18,355 which is 79.61 percent of the total population of 2,74,289.