Kargil: Thousands of people in Kargil staged a protest, demanding equal share in divisional status granted to Ladakh earlier this week.
Ladakh will now have a separate divisional commissioner and an inspector general of police (IGP) with a full administrative and revenue division at par with Kashmir and Jammu divisions. The headquarter’s is based in Leh.
Thousands of people assembled at Islamia School Chowk under the leadership of All Religious, Political and Social Organization and marched towards Baroo Kargil to protest against Headquarter at Leh.
The protesters were chanting slogans like “we want justice”, Headquarter at Leh and Kargil on rotational basis” etc.
Cutting across party lines, prominent politicians from Kargil district have already threatened mass agitation if the governor administration did not review its decision to permanently post the divisional commissioner and inspector general of police (IGP) headquarters in Leh.
The decision to submit resignations en masse from all democratic institutions and hold protests in Kargil, Jammu and Delhi was announced jointly by Chairman Legislative Council Haji Anayat Ali, Chief Executive Officer of Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) Feroz Khan and former MLA Haji Asgar Ali Karbalia at a press conference on saturday.
In a major decision, the Jammu and Kashmir administration on Friday sanctioned creation of a separate administrative and revenue division for Ladakh, with its headquarters at Leh.
The people of Kargil are demanding that divisional commissioner and IGP offices function on rotational basis in Kargil during summers and in Leh during winters.
“We are not against the divisional status to Ladakh region comprising both Leh and Kargil districts. We are against posting the divisional commissioner’s headquarters along with IGP office permanently at Leh,” Khan, a senior National Conference leader, said.
He said the demand for divisional status for Ladakh was first raised by the people of Kargil but the governor administration ignored their request for rotating the divisional commissioner and IGP offices between the two districts for six months each.
“The people of Kargil are united in support of the demand for rotation of headquarters in Kargil during summer and in Leh during winter. If our demand is not met, we will resign en-mass from the posts we are holding in the democratic institutions, whether it is chairman of the legislative council, councilors in the LAHDC or panchayat institutions.
“We will also go for general strike and pour on the roads in the entire district besides Jammu and Delhi till our genuine demand is met,” Karbalai, a senior Congress leader said,
He added, “The decision in this regard was taken at a joint meeting of all political parties, including the Congress, the NC, the PDP and the BJP, religious parties and social groups in the district.”
