The Union Ministry of Home Affairs on Tuesday notified rules of a domicile and new reservation policy in the Union Territory of Ladakh.
According to the ministry’s notification, only those who have stayed in Ladakh continuously for 15 years, beginning in 2019, will qualify as domiciles in the Union Territory.
This means that non-native persons living in Ladakh will be considered domiciled only after 2034.
On August 5, 2019 centre scrapped Articles 370 and 35A and bifurcated and downgraded erstwhile J&K state into two Union Territories --- Jammu and Kashmir (with legislature) and Ladakh (without legislature).
After Ladakh became UT, the Leh Apex Body and Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA), the conglomerates of political, social, trade religious groups of Leh and Kargil, launched an agitation to demand job and land safeguard for Ladakh. They have been demanding statehood with legislature, Sixth Schedule status, separate LS seats for Leh and Kargil districts and separate Public Service Commission for Ladakh.
The central government today also announced an 85% reservation for Scheduled Tribes in government jobs in Ladakh, addressing the fear that non-natives would corner employment opportunities.
More than 97% of the population in the Union Territory belongs to Scheduled Tribes.
Earlier, only 80% of government jobs were reserved for them.
The Ministry of Home Affairs’ notification on Tuesday marks the culmination of the talks.
On Tuesday, the Centre also notified English, Hindi, Urdu, Bhoti and Purgi to be the official languages of the Union Territory.
For the first time ever, the Union government also reserved one-third of seats for women in the two autonomous hill councils of Ladakh.
The government of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state had established two autonomous hill councils in Ladakh in the mid-1990s and early 2000s for greater independence in the region’s development. The members of these hill councils are elected through direct vote.