{"id":60933,"date":"2025-04-18T09:37:35","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T09:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/?p=60933"},"modified":"2025-04-18T09:37:35","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T09:37:35","slug":"mha-convenes-high-level-meeting-on-ladakh-for-may-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/18\/mha-convenes-high-level-meeting-on-ladakh-for-may-20\/","title":{"rendered":"MHA Convenes High-Level Meeting on Ladakh for May 20"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)<\/strong> has formally scheduled the next meeting of the High Powered Committee (HPC)<\/strong> on Ladakh<\/strong> for May 20<\/strong> in New Delhi<\/strong>. The meeting will be chaired by Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

An official order was issued by the MHA and communicated to all stakeholders, including members of the Leh Apex Body (LAB)<\/strong> and Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Reacting to the development, LAB Co-chairman Chering Dorjay Lakruk<\/strong> acknowledged receiving the notice and stated that a joint response will be provided following tomorrow\u2019s LAB-KDA meeting in Kargil district<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe will react after the meeting,\u201d Lakruk said, noting that although the notice was issued today, the meeting is scheduled over a month later.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This announcement follows Lt. Governor of Ladakh, Brig (Retd) BD Mishra\u2019s<\/strong> recent meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah<\/strong>, during which he updated him on pressing issues in the Union Territory.<\/p>\n

\u23f3 Delay Sparks Unrest<\/h3>\n

The announcement comes amid rising frustration among LAB and KDA members over the prolonged delay in the follow-up to the January 15<\/strong> meeting. A meeting was tentatively planned for February 15<\/strong>, but never materialized, though backchannel discussions<\/strong> reportedly continued between MHA officials and Ladakh representatives.<\/p>\n

LAB and KDA are pursuing a four-point agenda<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n

    Grant of Statehood<\/strong> to Ladakh<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    Inclusion under the Sixth Schedule<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    Creation of a dedicated Public Service Commission (PSC)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  4. \n

    Two Parliamentary seats<\/strong> instead of the current one<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \ud83d\udea8 Domicile Dispute<\/h3>\n

    A significant point of contention remains over domicile criteria for government jobs<\/strong>. The MHA has proposed a 15-year residency requirement<\/strong>, aligning with the Jammu and Kashmir model. However, LAB and KDA have been firm on fixing 1989<\/strong> as the cutoff year for domicile eligibility.<\/p>\n

    Reports indicate the MHA may consider extending the requirement to 20 years<\/strong>, though no official confirmation has been made.<\/p>\n

    \ud83d\udcbc Reservation Formula Still Unclear<\/h3>\n

    Another issue yet to be finalized is the reservation framework<\/strong>. While earlier discussions agreed to reserve 95% of government jobs for locals<\/strong>, the breakdown is as follows:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • \n

      80%<\/strong> for Scheduled Tribes (STs)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    • \n

      10%<\/strong> for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    • \n

      4%<\/strong> for Actual Line of Control (ALC)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    • \n

      1%<\/strong> for Scheduled Castes (SCs)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    • \n

      5%<\/strong> for other Ladakh domiciles<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Despite this agreement, no formal order has been issued yet.<\/p>\n

      Currently, non-gazetted recruitments<\/strong> in the UT are being conducted through the Ladakh Resident Certificate (LRC)<\/strong>, modeled after the old State Subject system of Jammu and Kashmir.<\/p>\n

      \ud83d\udd0d Other Key Demands<\/h3>\n

      There has been little progress on:<\/p>\n

        \n
      • \n

        Statehood demand<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

      • \n

        Sixth Schedule inclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

      • \n

        Two Lok Sabha seats<\/strong> (stalled until the 2026 Delimitation freeze<\/strong> ends)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        Sources suggest that the demand for a dedicated PSC<\/strong> will only be addressed once domicile and reservation matters are finalized. In the interim, the recruitment process for gazetted posts may be handled either by the UPSC<\/strong> or the Jammu and Kashmir PSC<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

        Representatives of LAB and KDA argue that EWS population in Ladakh is minimal<\/strong>, and a 10% reservation<\/strong> may be disproportionate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has formally scheduled the next meeting of the High Powered Committee (HPC) on Ladakh for May 20 in New…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,4601,454,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60933","post","has-post-thumbnail","category-jammu","category-jammu-and-kashmir","category-jmc","category-kashmir"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60933"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60935,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60933\/revisions\/60935"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}