Rigzin Tsewang
It has a vast area of 7000 sq km with a small population of around fifteen thousand settled along the two rivers-Stod and Tserap.The population lives mainly in scattered hamlets, largest being Padum which is Administrative Headquarter. Most of the people there are engaged in agriculture and cattle farming. Zanskar has extreme cold and arid climatic condition though suitable for the cultivation of some conventional crops like pea, wheat, barley and some vegetables.
Historically, Zanskar was an independent Buddhist kingdom ruled by its own king who happened to be the descendent of king of Tibet.Later it was also brought under the rule of the then Maharaja Hari Singh like the other part of Ladakh when he conquered Ladakh through his great general Zorawar Singh in 1834 and subsequently an integral part of J&K state in 1948. Zanskar’s population comprises both Buddhist and Muslim; Majority of the inhabitants being Buddhist.
During the reign of Maharaja Hari Singh, administratively Zanskar was placed under Kishtwar District. Later, it was brought under Kargil district considering geographical proximity and granted Sub division status. It is one of the oldest tehsils in our state but in terms of development and basic amenities, it is far backward as compared to other tehsils of our state.
Inspite of being given the status of Sub division, an officer of senior scale KAS rank was hardly posted as SDM. Most of the time a non gazetted officer was given the charge of SDM and at times the post of SDM remained vacant for a long time. Due to absence of qualified head, overall monitoring, formulation of policies and implementation of plans have always been ineffective.
Zanskar is connected with the district Headquarter-Kargil, with a rough and single lane road built in eighties which serves the people of Zanskar for six months before it gets blocked in the month of December because of heavy snow fall. The only lifeline of zanskar so far, is full of potholes, dusty, ragged and many small streams flow over it. The bridges built in the eighties are in bad shape and about to collapse in no time but no heed is paid to repair those or build new bridges by the government. The overall condition of the road is miserable and still many villages are inaccessible.
People in other parts of our state have electricity to cool during summer and warm during winter but people of this area have no electricity to lit their homes houses and more than half of total villages are yet to be electrified.
Zanskar is one of the favourite destinations of foreign tourists especially for European. But it has never been promoted as such. Many tourists whom I encountered appreciate the beauty of zanskar valley and express their willingness to visit again but all the visiting tourists have the same complaint-bad connectivity and lack of basic facilities. As a result most of the tourists willing to visit zanskar end up visiting some other places around Leh.
The hardships being faced by the people of this valley are innumerable but worst among them is on the health front. Zanskar has a primary health centre but only with two Assistant surgeons. The small hospital building has a bedding capacity for only 10 patients. People still depend on Ayurvedic system of Tibetan medicine (Amchi as locally known).Almost every village has its own Amchi who treats the local patients with his own resource and capacity. Had there been no Amchi (local Ayurvedic Doctor) situation would have been more miserable. But Amchi system of medicine is not sufficient enough when it comes to deal with persons suffering from a serious disease or need emergency treatment. Many precious lives have been lost in the past.
Same is the case with education sector. A good number of schools have been opened under SSA. Almost one school in every village, has been upgraded to higher level but quality of teaching and student teacher ratio has always remained the lowest. The only higher Secondary school in Zanskar valley has been facing shortage of staff and lab. equipment right from its inception.
Besides, Zanskar has been ignored in the political front as well. Zanskar was allocated a separate MLA seat in 1996 by taking its isolated geographical location, hard climatic condition, separate administrative unit and backwardness into consideration to represent the people of this most isolated region in the state assembly. But this has never served and solved the grievances because that seat has been just a nominal rather than a real representation.
Zanaskar is a separate Constituency. But bulk of the voters come from Suru valley in Kargil. Zanskar’s constituency has total voters 20,348 ( according to 2008 assembly election) comprising Suru valley out of which around only 8,000 voters come from Zanskar and rest of the voter come from Suru valley. The delimitation of the constituency was designed in such a fashion that some villages from Zanskar constituency have been picked up and adjusted in the Kargil constituency and more than 12,000 voters from Suru valley have been included in Zanskar constituency to ensure majority voters from suru valley in Zanskar constituency so that no candidate from Zanskar can win. It seems to be a deliberate move of the then local district leaders, bureaucrats and the state government as well. It is the worst political injustice meted out to the people of Zanskar by the state government.
Besides, some villages from zanskar constituency which is 115 km away from kargil has been picked up and included in the Kargil constituency and adjusted 12,000 voters from Suru valley in zanskar constituency which is again 150 km far from Zanskar.
A popular resentment and discontent is brewing among the people of Zanskar especially educated youth against this political injustice meted out to the people of Zanskar. An MLA for Zanaskar has been the long pending demand of Zanskarpa but the government has turned a deaf ear to this genuine political demand of Zanskarpa for decades.
Demographically, the whole of Suru valley form the major part of kargil district and majority of the kargil population is concentrated therein, hence Suru valley itself deserves to be made a separate constituency rather than being a part of Zanskar constituency. Whenever a delimitation commission is to be set up Suru valley should be seperated from of Zanskar constituency and must be made a separate constituency at the time of redrawing the constituency.
To avoid discrimination with any region within the district, equitable development, sufficient fund allocation and balanced political representation should be given without any bias and taking the geographical location and demographic pattern into account.
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