Will help Admn acquire land for projects
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Dec 18: The Union Finance Ministry is likely to restore over Rs 400 crore of cuts made in budgetary allocations of 2025-26 for the Union Territory of Ladakh which will help the UT administration to acquire land for certain ongoing projects and clear liabilities. The funds are expected to be released shortly.
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Official sources told the Excelsior that the Finance Ministry has reportedly agreed to restore the budgetary cuts of around Rs 400 crore after the issue was taken up by Lieutenant Governor Kavinder Gupta and the UT administration during couple of meetings with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi.
“The UT administration of Ladakh had been finding it difficult to acquire land for certain ongoing projects, thus, hampering the works. The Central assistance will not only help the UT to acquire land for timely completion of developmental works but will also enable the administration to clear the liabilities,’’ they said.
The Finance Ministry has also allocated Rs 148.64 crore to enhance budget allocation for two Autonomous Hill Development Councils of Ladakh including Leh and Kargil. While Kargil Hill Council is in place, Leh Council ceased to exist in October this year due to delay in timely elections and its powers have been given to the Deputy Commissioner Leh.
With Central funding, infrastructure projects have been given a major push during past few years. A number of development works including strategic roads and tunnels which will help both defence forces as well as civilians are going on. The Government of India has made it clear that there will be no shortage of funding to the UT administration for developmental works, both ongoing as well as the new ones which are proposed to be taken up shortly.
A day before the Lok Sabha approved Rs 2504.46 crore as additional expenditure for Ladakh for transfer to Jammu and Kashmir on account of apportionment of liabilities between the two Union Territories. Ladakh was also given Rs 20.14 crore as additional expenditure for transfer to the UT of J&K for construction of the High Court complex at Jammu.
in the annual budget for 2025-26, the Union Finance Ministry had given Ladakh the Central grants worth Rs 4692.15 crore which were less by Rs 1266 crore from 2024-25 when the UT was given Rs 5958 worth grants. The grants were even down by Rs 228 crore from revised estimates of 2024-25 which were pegged at Rs 4920.34 crore.
Out of Rs 4692.15 crore worth grants given to the UT of Ladakh, Rs 2450 crore were meant for revenue expenditure and Rs 2242.15 crore for capital expenditure.
In view of reduction in overall grants of Ladakh Union Territory, the department-wise grants in most of the cases had also gone down.
Ladakh has limited working season in view of extreme chill from December to March. However, the administration has been ensuring that pace of the works is not hit by the winter.
Multiple agencies have been engaged in execution of various development works in different parts of Ladakh. Few days back, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated large number of works including Shyok tunnel in Leh district of Ladakh. The Government has been upgrading connectivity to help smooth movement of defence forces and civilians.
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