The government on Tuesday announced new reservation and domicile polices for the Union Territory of Ladakh, reserving 85 per cent jobs for locals and one-third of the total number of seats in the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils for women.
English, Hindi, Urdu, Bhoti and Purgi languages have been made the official languages in Ladakh.
The move is aimed at safeguarding local interests as people in Ladakh have been protesting for constitutional safeguards to protect their language, culture and land after the special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 was abrogated in 2019.
The changes in the policies for reservation in jobs, autonomous councils, domicile and languages will come into effect from Tuesday, according to multiple notifications issued by the government.
Under the new rules, those who have resided for a period of 15 years in the UT or studied for a period of seven years and appeared in class 10 or 12 examination in an educational institution located in the UT shall be domicile of Ladakh for the purposes of appointment to any post under the UT or under a local or other authority other than cantonment board.
Children of central government officials, All India Services Officers, officials of Public Sector Undertaking and autonomous body of central government, Public Sector Banks, officials of statutory bodies, officials of central universities and recognised research institutes of central government who have served in the UT for a total period of 10 years are also eligible for domicile.
Reservation for the Economically Weaker Sections continues to be 10 per cent.
In another notification, the government said that in the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils Act, 1997, not less than one-third of the total number of seats in the Councils shall be reserved for women and such seats may be allotted by rotation to different territorial constituencies.
The rotation of constituencies reserved for women shall be made on the basis of serial number allotted to each constituencies by notification in the official gazette.
Ladakh has two autonomous hill development councils – the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Leh and the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Kargil.
