J&K crisis | Ladakh to be made into Union Territory without legislature: What it means

The Centre on August 5 informed Parliament that the state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) would be bifurcated into two Union Territories (UTs).

The government said Jammu and Kashmir would become a Union Territory (UT) with a Legislature while Ladakh will be a different UT without a Legislature.

The Union Territory of Ladakh was a long-standing demand of the people of the region and the decision was aimed at fulfilling the aspiration of the local population, Home Minister Amit Shah said.

"The Ladakh Division of the State of Jammu and Kashmir has a large area but is sparsely populated with a very difficult terrain. There has been a long pending demand of people of Ladakh, to give it the status of a Union Territory to enable them to realise their aspirations. The Union Territory of Ladakh will be without Legislature," Shah said.

This puts Ladakh on par with Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu and Lakshadweep — the other Union Territories without legislature.

Experts have suggested that the bifurcation would help in the upliftment of the region, which, politicians particularly from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have observed, has been devoid to the region because of the situation in the Valley.

"I welcome the Bill on behalf of everyone in Ladakh. People there wanted the region to be a Union Territory. People in Ladakh wanted that the region be freed from the dominance & discrimination of Kashmir, that is happening today," Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, BJP MP from Ladakh, said, according to news agency ANI.

In February this year, news agency PTI had reported that the J&K administration had created a separate division for Ladakh, which until then had been part of the Kashmir division.

Subsequently, Ladakh had its own separate divisional commissioner and an inspector-general of Police (IG) with a full administrative and revenue division on par with Kashmir and Jammu divisions.