During PM’s visit to Kargil, the Chief Minister pleaded for some genuine and urgently needed facilities for Kargil as well as Leh. Expenditure and viability are involved in building a new airport in Kargil and vacating the present strip for the expansion of the town. The Centre should consider it with sympathy. The CM has made a very cogent demand that air service between Kargil and Srinagar/Jammu/Delhi is urgently needed to alleviate the communication obstacles during winter months. We have also in these columns said a couple of times that affordability of the people of Leh and Kargil should be kept in mind as regards the air fare from and to. If nothing, at least air fare during winter months when the road is completely blocked by heavy snowfall should be considered sympathetically. We are proud of nationalist sentiment of the people of entire Ladakh region and of Kargil in particular which they adequately demonstrated during the Kargil war of 1999. The 220 KV transmission line, which the PM inaugurated and the commitment of the Centre to bear the cost of Zoji La tunnel are great gestures of goodwill of Prime Minister Modi. We welcome it and express thanks to him for his deep concern for the development of the backward region of Ladakh.
Leh and Kargil both deserve to be provided with IT outlets so that boys and girls of the area take to information technology skills and are able o find employment. They need to be provided scholarship for joining various courses in Srinagar/Jammu and other universities in the country to acquire technical skill. There are about ten thousand students of the region admitted to various educational institutions in Jammu alone. But it is sad that no proper hostels are built to accommodate these students and they have to rent private accommodation which they are not able to afford, nor have the facilities. At least three hostels should be built in Jammu alone for the students of this region.
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