MoS Home reaches Leh on 3-day visit to discuss boost to exports from UT

Will meet stakeholders today

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Sept 20: Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra reached Leh this afternoon on a three-day visit and will be discussing with stakeholders the steps required to improve exports from the Union Territory of Ladakh.
Official sources told the Excelsior that Mishra will inaugurate `Vanijya Saptah’ and other programmes in Leh tomorrow.
However, primary aim of Mishra’s visit to Leh is to identify issues faced by exporters in the Union Territory of Ladakh and focus on strategies to improve export scenario in the UT.
For the purpose, he will also be holding Panel discussion with stakeholders including exporters, officials of the Union Territory administration, bankers and traders, they said.
Sources said the Central Government as well as the Union Territory administration believed that there has been vast scope of exports from both Leh and Kargil districts which hasn’t been taken care of by the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir Government as Ladakh was one of the division of that State. However, with Ladakh becoming the Union Territory, the Central Government has already ensured that fruits and other products of Ladakh are exported to various foreign countries as per the demand.
“Mishra will be holding Panel discussion with stakeholders on boosting exports from Ladakh,” sources said.
Though the Union Minister of State for Home reached Leh today, his all programmes are scheduled for tomorrow,” they said, adding that he will leave for Srinagar on September 22 morning where he is scheduled to join public outreach programme being conducted by the Union Council of Ministers.
During past couple of months, a number of Union Ministers and Parliamentary Standing Committees (PSCs) have visited the Union Territory of Ladakh during which they interacted with people, UT administration officials, representatives of Hill Councils and other stakeholders.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla had also visited Leh district for four days during which he met representatives of the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) among others.