Srinagar: The administration of Union Territory Lakdah has removed Urdu as a test language for various posts in the Revenue department amid the political leaders raising a "conspiracy" in the decision.
According to a notification issued by the Principal Secretary of Revenue Dr. Pawan Kotwal, the clause of "knowledge of Urdu" has been replaced with graduation from any recognised university. The order said, "In exercise of the powers conferred by S.O 282(E) dated 21.01.2020, the Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territory of Ladakh hereby makes the following amendments in the Ladakh Revenue (Subordinate) Service Recruitment Rule, 2021, notified vide S.O. 35 dated 08.9.2021, namely: Schedule-II. - For the text in the first and the third row of the third column of Schedule-II (B), substitute- "Graduation from a Recognized University."
Ladakh region is comprised of two districts - Leh and Kargil, with a total population of three lakhs. Leh has a majority of the Buddhist population while Kargil is populated by Muslims. The population ratio of the region is 55 percent Muslims and 45 Buddhists.
There is a proportion of people in Leh who also speak and write Urdu. Jigmet Norbu who is known by his pen name Khayal Ladakhi is one of the famous Urdu writers from Leh. Politics and language have always been issues of the rift between the two districts as Leh people always complained about the "hegemony" of Kashmir rulers.
Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, BJP MP from Ladakh, who had last year written to Home Minister Amit Shah to remove this clause from Revenue rules, said that Urdu is no more a compulsory language for the recruitment of Patawari & Naib Tehsildar in Union Territory of Ladakh. "This is one of the important changes in our administrative system after the abrogation of Article 370," he said.
Former legislator of Kargil Asgar Ali Karbalaie said that Urdu should not be seen through the prism of religion as the government seems to make the people believe. "Urdu was made official language by the Dogra rulers in 1889 and is used in all revenue and courts in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. It also serves as a link between the three regions and its people who speak different languages," Karbalie told ETV Bharat.
Meanwhile, after the abrogation of Article 370, the Centre government under Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act 2019 and its section 46 added three more languages- Hindi, Kashmir, and Dogri as official languages besides Urdu and English.
