When a goal or a challenging milestone is achieved for which lot of struggles, hard work and expectations are invested, celebrations become a manifestation of the achievement. A leverage of powerful energies of gratitude and impetus, driving power and a peculiar strength all take place. The same was witnessed recently in great measure in Leh when the first Foundation Day of the Union Territory of Ladakh was celebrated with great enthusiasm and a resolve to taking Ladakh to newer heights of development and progress as a Union Territory. It is really an established fact that during the period of the one year of its attaining the status of a Union Territory, a peculiar feeling of having attained some spectacular thing has imbibed deep into Ladakhis which they had been missing all these seven decades. It witnessed a comparative satisfactory development and at the top of it, great measure of riddance from lot many difficulties in visiting the two capitals of (then state of ) Jammu and Kashmir as the case be, for getting even an ordinary work done. With the granting of the UT status to Ladakh, for which the efforts of the present Government bore the required fruits, uniqueness of this strategic region and its importance, fragility and its special identity are destined to get conserved and fully assured. Several projects which were in the pipeline but required the necessary push and impetus in the process of completion, got completed during this one year which were launched on the occasion by the Lieutenant Governor RK Mathur and dedicated to the people of Ladakh. Ladakhis are known for industry, forbearance and holding discipline dear to them which result in making them withstand and face boldly and triumphantly the harsh winter, the region being a wild cold desert, and even in facing the unexpected and extraordinary challenge of the Corona pandemic. The manner in which amidst the pandemic conditions, recent elections of Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council were conducted, could be termed as inspiring and worth eulogising. Now that there is an indigenous bureaucracy, a team of dedicated officers knowing fully the intricacies of the region, a strong political leadership and an enthusiastic and educated populace coupled with assured funds for development and raising infrastructure of different hues, Ladakh was bound to take leaps to attain new benchmarks of progress and growth. Such expectations were made known by the Lieutenant t Governor as a result of the changed scenario. The Ladakh Vision 2050 which is a vision document for the next 30 years aiming at achieving good governance and ensuring holistic development of the region, the tag of being much behind other hilly areas of the country, was thus bound to get erased. The notable areas of social welfare, public health, human resources development , commerce, industry , agriculture, tourism and the like were bound to get pointed and focussed attention. Agriculture is an area which has been grossly neglected in this region resulting in most of the needs of food items being imported and incomes too from this sector being quite negligible. Healthcare, drinking water, limited avenues for higher education and power availability too have remained vastly not given the required attention which the vision document is now going to address in a scientific and planned way. The aim of launching this document by the Lt. Governor on the occasion was to elicit opinion and suggestions and other valuable inputs from the public which could make the document instrumental in taking Ladakh to faster development. However, the occasion saw realisation of the concerns of the general public on issues like job security, land, environment and cultural protection and assurances were given by LG of his full support and cooperation. It is expected that agriculture, horticulture, medicinal and aromatic plants, renewable energy projects for power and the like shall get focussed attention from the Government which was going to result in the turnaround of the economy of Ladakh
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