Ladakh on back burner

Ladakh as one of the three component regions of the State has special significance over the other two regions. First of all it is on climatic count that Ladakh has to be distinguished and secondly on ethno-linguistic count as well, its divergence from Aryan race has to be recognized. This divergence may become the catalyst to a mindset among the people that panders to victimhood. In simpler language, the Ladakhis have developed the feeling that they have been discriminated against by successive State Governments. The simmering suspicion of discrimination makes a people look the other way. The policy planners in Srinagar/Jammu must understand that they have to make extra effort in convincing Ladakhis that their interests are well protected. Ladakh remained neglected for a long time and it took it so many decades to prepare cadres that would be capable of running local administration. Owing to climatic conditions and backward status of the region, the Government functionaries belonging to other two regions usually find pretexts to avoid posting to Ladakh. The Government also easily entertains these pretexts. The result is that Ladakh suffers for want of just and equitable administration. The post of SDM Nubra remains vacant since a long time because two officers appointed and posted there as SDM, managed to get their transfer orders modified. This is not the way how Ladakhis can be served. The State should make a special drive to recruit and train fairly large cadre of administrative staff from among the educated youth in Ladakh region. Actually a separate Service Selection Board for Ladakh should be constituted which would be asked to relax many rules of recruitment for the youth of this backward mountainous region. A time bound programme has to be initiated so that in next one decade almost all pending vacancies are filled by the local candidates. The Central Government and the Parliament should also take cognizance of this need so that discrimination against Ladakhis is eliminated.

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