LEH: With all eyes on breaking the months-long logjam, a six-member strong joint delegation of Leh Apex Body (LAB) and Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) for the dialogue in the national capital on June 19.
The delegation that will meet Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai on June 19 will comprise of Thupstan Chhewang, a two-time Lok Sabha member from Ladakh, Chering Dorjey and Nawang Rigzin Jora, Qamar Ali Akhoon, all three former Ministers in previous J&K Governments, Haji Asgar Ali Karbalaie, a former MLA and Sajjad Kargili, Thupstan announced on Wednesday.
While the first three persons represent LAB, the other three are from KDA.
Last month, extending an olive branch to break the months-long logjam, the Leh Apex Body and the Kargil Democratic Alliance— the leading powerful socio-political groups of the union territory, had expressed their willingness to hold dialogue with the Centre on their four-point agenda, including the demand for full statehood and extension of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution to the region.
These two organisations are coalitions of socio-religious, political and youth organisations of Leh and Kargil districts and were formed after August 5, 2019, when the Centre abrogated the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated it into Union territories of J-K and Ladakh.
They later joined hands and came out with the four-point agenda and held a series of protests in Leh, Kargil, Jammu and Delhi.
The Leh Apex Body (LAB) had two separate meetings with the Union home minister, while KDA had one meeting last year but later decided to stay away from a high-powered committee constituted by the home ministry on the pretext that the government had completely ignored the four-point agenda and also paid no heed to their suggestion about the composition of the panel.
The 6th Schedule of the constitution essentially gives financial and social autonomy to certain regions. The Constitution requires that 50% of a region’s population should be tribal to be included into the sixth schedule. Wangchuk has been heading the protests demanding sixth schedule for Ladakh, which has around 95% of its population as tribals.
