Ladakh Gets 5 New Districts Amid Demand For Statehood, PM Modi Lauds Move

Ladakh: The new districts will be made in Zanskar, Drass, Sham, Nubra, and Changthang, said Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced that five new districts will be made in Ladakh.

Source : PTI

The Ministry of Home Affairs will create five new districts in Ladakh, announced Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday. The new districts will be Zanskar, Drass, Sham, Nubra, and Changthang.

"In pursuit of PM Shri @narendramodi Ji's vision to build a developed and prosperous Ladakh, the MHA has decided to create five new districts in the union territory. The new districts, namely Zanskar, Drass, Sham, Nubra and Changthang, will take the benefits meant for the people to their doorsteps by bolstering governance in every nook and cranny," said Shah in a post on X.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the move as a step towards "better governance and prosperity." 

"Zanskar, Drass, Sham, Nubra, and Changthang will now receive more focused attention, bringing services and opportunities even closer to the people. Congratulations to the people there," he said. 

The Ministry of Home Affairs has instructed the Ladakh administration to form a committee to evaluate various aspects related to the new districts, such as headquarters, boundaries, structure, creation of posts, and any other aspects related to district formation. 

The committee is supposed to submit its report within three months after which the Union Territory of Ladakh will send a final proposal to the Ministry of Home Affairs for further action based on the report. 

Ladakh was given the status of a Union Territory in 2019 after the abrogation of Article 370 which granted special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. The revocation of article 370 bifurcated it into two Union Territories after which Ladakh comes under the direct administrative control of the Home Ministry. 

Representatives and leaders from the region soon started demanding statehood. 

Sonam Wagchuk's Reacts

Reacting to the development, climate activist and environmentalist Sonam Wangchuk on Monday congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah for the announcement of the new districts.

"This was an old demand, especially by the people in the Zanskar area. They have been promised in 2019 that it would be made into a district... But for other districts, it is a good news or not depends on whether the district would be an administrative one or a democratic one," Wangchuk said in a video message on X.

He further said that the government promised to add Ladakh to the Sixth Schedule in 2019. The people are demanding the Sixth Schedule so that these districts could be democratic and the decisions regarding the development can be taken by elected representatives, he added.

"If these districts have been made into autonomous district councils, where elected representatives take decisions regarding development in their areas, according to the Sixth Schedule, then this is good news. But if these are just administrative districts, then the demand of the people of Ladakh is not just development, but they are also calling for democracy," he said.

The Leh Apex Body (LAB) and Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) have been jointly spearheading an agitation from the last four years demanding statehood for Ladakh. Notably, Monday's announcement came two days after the LAB announced a foot march from Leh to Delhi on September 1.

Climate activist and environmentalist Sonam Wangchuk had announced that he will participate in the peace march along with 100 volunteers to press the Centre for the resumption of stalled dialogue with the leadership of Ladakh. 

The two sides had engaged in dialogue in March this year, however, the meeting failed to reach any concrete outcome.