Why Centre’s new order pruning financial powers has added to disquiet in Ladakh

On November 24, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs took away significant financial decision-making powers from Ladakh's Lieutenant Governor and its senior administration officials.

The power to grant approval to schemes or projects in Ladakh up to Rs 100 crore will now lie with the Union home ministry, according to a detailed order, and not the Lieutenant Governor.

Moreover, while the union territory's top bureaucrats like administrative secretaries could sanction projects up to Rs 20 crore, that power too now lies with the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Even officials like chief engineers and district magistrates, who could grant financial sanction for works between Rs 3 crore and Rs 10 crore, will no longer enjoy those powers.

The order also curbs the financial powers of the two elected hill councils in Ladakh – one each in Leh and Kargil – to sanction works up to Rs 5 crore.

These powers had been delegated to Ladakh by the Ministry of Home Affairs after it was carved out as a separate union territory in 2019.

While the government's rationale behind the move is to ensure transparency and better coordination for the region's development, the order is being seen as yet another attempt by New Delhi to disempower the cold desert region.

“How will a bureaucrat sitting in New Delhi know about the developmental needs and issues of the people belonging to far flung regions like Ladakh?” asked Chering Dorjay, a senior Ladakhi leader and chairman of Leh Apex Body, one of the two bodies negotiating with the union government for autonomy and special status for Ladakh. “This order simply means that the decisions for developmental works here will be taken in New Delhi and not Ladakh.”

The decision is impractical, he said. “Ladakh's weather allows only six months in which works can be carried out,” said Dorjay, underlining the need for quick decisions. “[But] now we will have to make rounds of North Block in New Delhi to push for projects in Ladakh.”

Scroll emailed the Ladakh LG's office for a response. The story will be updated if they respond.

The Centre's recent decision has led to disquiet among leaders like Dorjay, as it comes in the backdrop of growing discontent against New Delhi in the region.

In September, four civilians were shot dead and dozens injured after protesters in Leh demanding statehood for Ladakh clashed with the police.

Two days later, New Delhi cracked down harder. The government detained climate activist and innovator Sonam Wangchuk, who had observed a 16-day-long hunger strike in 2024 to highlight Ladakh's concerns about autonomy, under the National Security Act. The government accused Wangchuk of inciting the violence.

In the last four years, a popular movement in the region seeking autonomy and protection for land and jobs has gained momentum.

The movement has its roots in August 2019, when the Narendra Modi government decided to split the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories.

All of Ladakh welcomed the move.

But that euphoria faded as residents realised that they, like the residents of Jammu and Kashmir, had lost their exclusive rights to own immovable property and get government jobs in the region following the scrapping of Article 370 and Article 35A of the Constitution.

In August 2021, both Kargil and Leh rejected the union territory status for Ladakh and demanded statehood instead.

By 2022, the growing anxiety over non-locals being eligible to own land and take jobs in Ladakh had crystallized into a set of four demands: statehood for Ladakh; constitutional safeguards under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution; separate Lok Sabha seats for Leh and Kargil districts and the rollout of a recruitment process and a separate Public Service Commission for Ladakh.

The Centre has held multiple rounds of deliberations with the Ladakh leadership since 2021 over the demands.

Yet, the negotiations have failed to lead to any major solution.

In this backdrop, the trimming of the Union territory administration's financial powers is being seen as yet another attempt by New Delhi to tighten its grip over the cold desert region.

“When the trend is participatory and bottom-up governance, the Centre is adopting a totally opposite approach,” he said.

Ladakh's Muslim-majority Kargil district echoed Dorjay's views.

Sajjad Kargili, the representative of Kargil Democratic Alliance, the group that represents Kargil district in the negotiations with the Centre, said the order is in continuation of the series of decisions taken by the centre to disempower Ladakh. “After 2019, we were disempowered politically. Now it appears we are being disempowered financially as well,” Kargili said. “This order has also stripped the financial powers of the hill councils, which had the powers to sanction works up to Rs 5 crore.”

He added: “This will lead to the speed of development in Ladakh slowing down.”

The new order fits into a pattern of dwindling democratic representation in Ladakh, Kargil alleged.

On October 30, the five-year term of the elected Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Leh, ended without any announcement of fresh election by the Centre.

Usually, the elections to the next hill council are announced a few months before the current one lapses.

Panchayat elections too have not been held in the region since the last two years. In effect, Ladakh now has no elected leadership at grassroots level barring the hill development council in Kargil, whose term will end in 2028.

“There is very little remnant of democracy left in Ladakh post-2019,” Kargili said. “Now, even that's dead too.”

Source: Scroll
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