New Delhi : Representatives from Ladakh and the Union government are set to sit down for talks again this Wednesday.

The meeting between the Leh Apex Body (LAB) the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA), and the Union Home Ministry’s High Powered Committee (HPC) is scheduled for roughly 4 pm on September 9.

Delegates from the two Ladakhi organisations arrived in Delhi on Tuesday in preparation for the discussions.

This round follows a meeting on May 22 during which the Centre suggested that a customised sui generis model drawing on provisions under Article 371 could be developed for the Ladakh.

Ladakh’s representatives are expected to press for the territory’s inclusion in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution along with guarantees covering land rights, employment, environmental protection, culture and identity.

The LAB and KDA are likely to argue that the Ladakhs hill councils deserve greater autonomy and constitutional backing, comparable to Sixth Schedule institutions in India’s northeast.

KDA’s Sajjad Kargili reiterated the demand for autonomous hill councils with constitutional powers similar to those in the northeast.

For its part, the Union Home Ministry has called full statehood a long term aspiration,while indicating openness to a tailored governance structure for Ladakh potentially including a Union Territory level elected body with executive, financial and legislative authority.

These demands for stronger constitutional protections date back to 2019, when Ladakh was carved out of the former state of Jammu and Kashmir and made a separate Union Territory.

Since then, political, social and religious groups in ladakh have consistently pushed for safeguards around land, jobs, ecology, cultural identity and political representation.

Ahead of Wednesday’s talks, the Ladakh administration has rolled out several measures widely seen as confidence building gestures.

Even so with a number of issues still unresolved, this meeting is being viewed as another chance for the Centre and Ladakh’s civil society groups to find common ground.

Report – Mudasir Maqbool