Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 7: The Leh Apex Body (LAB) and Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) have decided to circulate the representation finalized for submission to the Union Home Ministry among their members first for their consent.
LAB chairman and former Lok Sabha member Thupstan Chhewang told the Excelsior on telephone from New Delhi that they have almost finalized the representation and will be circulating it among the LAB and KDA members for their study and approval before finally approving it.
Earlier, they were scheduled to submit the representation to the MHA today as sought by the Union Home Ministry.
“We will prefer to submit the representation to the Union Home Ministry during the High Powered Committee (HPC) meeting whenever it is held. However, if the Ministry insists on its submission prior to the meeting, we can do it after consultations among LAB and KDA representatives,” Chhewang said.
The Home Ministry has asked the two bodies to submit their representation to it containing their agenda before next meeting.
Insiders said since leaders of LAB and KDA are at different places presently because of extreme cold conditions in Ladakh, the representation is likely to be sent to them through email or other modes of communication for additions or deletions as joint meeting at this stage to deliberate on the document may not be possible.
“Once we get response from the members on draft representation, we will finalize it and take a decision on whether to submit it during the meeting or before,” the insiders in the two bodies said.
The Home Ministry had suggested to the LAB and KDA that there are many provisions in Sixth Schedule of the Constitution which don’t pertain to Ladakh and they can be excluded. The LAB And KDA leaders said that all those provisions of the Sixth Schedule which can give protection to the Union Territory of Ladakh in any form have been included in the representation and the two bodies are confident that the Home Ministry will implement them.
The representation included all three other demands of Ladakh including Statehood, two Parliamentary seats and setting up of the Public Service Commission (PSC).
As per the sources, the Union Home Ministry is likely to call a meeting of the HPC shortly after receiving representation from the LAB and KDA.
The meeting is likely to be held either in New Delhi or in Leh. There have been reports that Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai, who heads the HPC, could also travel to Leh as indicated by him in the last meeting.
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