Close on the heels of a meeting on Wednesday between representatives of the Leh Apex Body (LAB) and the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) with officials from the Union home ministry—focusing on statehood with a legislature and constitutional guarantees under the Sixth Schedule—the UT administration of Ladakh announced on Thursday the withdrawal of FIRs against 25 of the 87 people booked following the September 24 violence in Leh.
The chief secretary also drew attention to long-overdue elections to the Panchayats. However, following yesterday’s meeting, we discussed the matter with the LG and with his permission; it has been decided to withdraw FIRs against 25 people. Because of evidence against them, addressing mediapersons in Leh on Thursday, Ladakh chief secretary Ashish Kundra said, “In total, 87 FIRs were lodged, out of whom, nine were chargesheeted.
For the remaining people, DGP will be asked to analyse their cases afresh and see what can be done with them, he said. “Though the representatives confined themselves to sub-committee discussions on having an elected UT-level body, we told them that, being a political discussion, there are bodies below the UT-level body at the district and panchayat levels where we don’t have elected people except in the case of the Kargil hill council,” said Kundra.
Their cases are before the court. We will file their closure report before the court.
“Accordingly, we put forth a suggestion that the process for panchayat polls, which have not been held for a long time, should be initiated. “A consensus had evolved about having a UT level body in Ladakh, which is called sui-generis and there is no parallel to it in the country. The representatives of Ladakh have put-forth a wish-list to the MHA officials about non-negotiable items. The sub-committee meeting is likely to be held in the first half of September. A draft proposal is also being prepared by the MHA. Eventually, a framework will come up…to decide all aspects including how to form the UT level body, to hold elections, to delegate powers to executive and judiciary and other related elements. These things don’t happen overnight but certainly a new model will be prepared in consonance with the aspirations of the people of Ladakh and within the Constitution.
Kundra also referred to Section 3 of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) Act, which talks about district councils in all the districts of Ladakh. Under Article 371, a draft proposal will be given a shape. Therefore, the government has made up its mind to convey to the state election commission to initiate the process and issue a formal notification for holding them,” he said.
“Since Ladakh now has seven districts, the process for holding polls to have hill councils in all the districts will be initiated in the second stage after bringing requisite change in the law,” he said. A process has been initiated and a meeting will soon be held,” he said.
