Ladakh: A New Administration and New Hopes

Ladakh, a trans-Himalayan region in the northernmost part of India, has become a popular tourist destination in the last few years owing to the scenic Ladakh landscape figuring in the backdrop in many Indian films. Its estimated population was 3.1 lakh in 2020, around 40 per cent of which has no access to available infrastructure. Tourism contributes approximately 50 per cent to the GDP of Ladakh, which is also a seasonal trade because of extreme temperatures during winters. Limited connectivity, agricultural dependency, digital divide, lack of healthcare facilities, localised education system are some of the key challenges faced by the Union Territory, as outlined by the recently released document ‘Vision 2050 for UT of Ladakh’. To discuss more about these issues and possible solutions, Pooja Upadhyay, Reporter, Urban Update, spoke with Ajeet Kumar Sahu, who has been Commissioner Secretary of the UT Administration of Ladakh, since August 2020. In this interview, Sahu gets candid about the initiatives taken by his administration to develop Ladakh and the challenges he has faced whilst making services like healthcare, and education accessible to people.
Excerpts from the interview….

It has been over two years since Ladakh was separated from the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir and became a Union Territory. In these past two years, we’ve seen the budget increase and developmental works accelerate. How has the new administration managed to achieve this? For instance, the new airport of Leh, considered one of the most scenic airports, which opened recently was developed in record time.

Thank You Pooja. You have rightly pointed out that there has been a significant change in the administration since Ladakh became a Union Territory in October 2019. A lot of new things have happened since then. You must also be aware that Ladakh is a completely new administrative unit. The challenges here are not only related to geography and climate, but also the new administrative set up. Due to the hard work of the administration, things are in place now and development is picking up pace. The creation of UT also coincided with coming of the COVID-19 pandemic; but despite the challenges of the pandemic, the administration has tried to keep development on track. And I think we’ve been successful in this effort. With regard to the budget, in 2018-19, the total budget of Ladakh was around 11.35 crore, while in 2022-23, it increased to59.58 crore which is more than five times. Most of this is capital investment that is going to change the infrastructure set up here. Besides the UT administration, we have two autonomous district councils whose budget has also gone up significantly. Where earlier their budget was 50 crore, it now stands at250 crore for each council, as a result of which their spending has also increased. We also have Panchayati Raj Institutions and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), which have also been strengthened. 50 crore have been given to the Panchayats alone. And nearly20 lakh has been given per panchayat additionally, plus one crore has been given to each block for developmental work. The ULBs have been given 23 crore as grants-in-aid besides other support like208 crore as capital investment for infrastructure development. So, all in all in every sector the budget has tremendously increased whether it is health, power, road, etc.

Talking about the increase in budget allocation, the developmental activities have also been given impetus. What are the challenges faced by the administration during implementation?

Ladakh is definitely a difficult terrain topographically and climatically, being a trans-Himalayan area. It also has capacity challenges. As I mentioned earlier, being a new administrative set up, it was a challenge in itself. On top of that, the pandemic posed its own challenges.
There was an acute shortage of labour as most of them had migrated during the pandemic. To deal with this issue, we tied up with agencies like Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and Central Public Works Department (CPWD) to mobilise labourers. So we first focused on building capacity. We still have a shortage of officials at the appropriate levels, especially the technical level. We don’t have the provincial services officers, like 70 per cent of posts of BDOs and SDMs
are vacant.
We don’t have sufficient number of accounts officers, so we requested officers to be posted on deputation from the UT administration of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). Besides, the local officers who were available hadn’t worked at such a scale before, so they didn’t have the capability to handle projects of bigger size. We also brought national level agencies here, like CPWD, National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL). More such agencies are coming like National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC). So we first had to build capacity because with increase in developmental activities, manpower is also needed.
The local economy here, is nearly a six-month economy, so we have to bring in new technologies to make sure work continues during winters as well. Through constant experimentation and innovation, we have seen improvement in work conditions during winter months. We’re trying to work on the living conditions of workers so that they can stay here during winters. These are a few of the challenges being faced here, while we’re still working on many others, by infusing new technology, coordination, mobilising expert agencies, etc.

Everyone knows that Ladakh is a beautiful place, but it is also a geographically difficult place for dwellers and administrators alike. For instance, with the JJM mission which aims to provide tap water connections to every household, there’s always the fear of pipes bursting since water freezes in subzero temperatures during winters. How does the administration deal with this?

Not only zero, the temperature goes as low as -25 degrees Celsius in towns itself, and in certain places it even reaches -35 degree Celsius. There are many other challenges besides technological ones like that of freezing of pipelines. People weren’t accepting this scheme since everyone thought this would be a failure. Never before has tap water been provided in Ladakh during winters. All the stakeholders, from contractors to the common people had to be convinced since they had apprehensions about this scheme. After multiple rounds of meetings with a team of engineers, certain best practices were adopted like insulation of pipes where required, going below the frost line wherever possible, changing the type of material being used (from Galvanised Iron pipes to High Density Polyethylene pipes and Polypropylene Random Copolymer pipes). We’re also experimenting with the bleeding technology, wherein the water is left dripping from the taps during extreme winters (one or two months) so that the water doesn’t freeze. We worked on 50 per cent of the area last year, and the remaining is still being worked upon. We are gradually learning from practicing and it’s an ongoing process.

In plains, people expect certain living standards and sustainable development from their local governments. I’d like to understand what the aspirations of the people of Ladakh are and what are their expectations from the administration?

Every citizen in the country or rather in the world, has simple expectations – improved liveability, economic upliftment and sustainability. These are the major objectives around which we are working. The solutions are different because the challenges here are different. The ultimate goal is the same. We have to be a little more careful here, because of the fragile ecology. Whatever development is being undertaken, it has to be sustainable and environment friendly. In fact, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi has declared Ladakh to be a carbon-neutral zone. All our efforts have this over-arching objective. So, we’re not encouraging any pollution generating activities. We’re trying to promote e-buses, plantation (wherever possible), green technologies. Our goal is that overall living conditions should improve, economic opportunities should increase and whatever development is being done, it should be sustainable.

When other cities in India are shifting towards green mobility and sustainable infrastructure, Ladakh has started its developmental journey on that note. Although, the population is not much in Ladakh, how does administration address the issue of poor population?

There are many schemes which are working in this regard. Tourism is a major source of employment in this region. For every hotel room, at least one job is created. We have nearly 5000 hotel rooms in Ladakh. Moreover, if we provide basic amenities like good roads, water supply, and power supply, then overall living conditions improve and employment opportunities also go up. The UT administration is promoting horticulture and local products in a big way. We’re also promoting greenhouse technologies so that production can continue even in winters and vegetables won’t have to be transported from other states. This will not only improve liveability and economic opportunity, but also reduce carbon footprint in the region. As far as education is concerned, pupil-teacher ratio here is 1:6, which is a general estimate. The expenditure on every child is `4,00,000 per annum. That’s quite an expenditure considering that the schools have to be kept open even in the remotest areas. Every student, from class sixth to 12th, has been provided with an educational tablet. All the high-schools and higher secondary schools have smart classrooms and computer labs. Moreover, we have targeted to achieve zero drop-out within a year or two, and that will be tracked from the Anganwadis till higher education. We are close to achieving 100 per cent house-for-all status. After the survey of the homeless population, they were provided the benefit of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana in both rural and urban areas. We’re expecting all houses to be completed this year.

Remarkable! In fact, yesterday I came across a woman who is a primary school teacher in Durbuk and was travelling from somewhere around Leh. She was telling me that she stays there for a week and the school provides her with all the facilities, because it’s not feasible to travel every day.

The educational challenges in the region are completely different because of the extreme winters during three months when the students cannot sit and the teachers cannot teach. So, in order to increase the instructional days, we provide solarised classrooms and heating operators, so that the schools can remain functional even during the winters. Additionally, this year we have also started providing jackets as part of the school uniform.

So, for every challenge, the administration is coming up with innovative solutions.

Certainly. The locals know their problems best because they live with it every day. So it’s better to consult and involve them in deriving solutions, and that’s what we are doing.

What is your vision for the region of Ladakh?

After Ladakh became a UT, we are working on a vision document known as ‘Ladakh 2050’, which is ready and about to be published very soon. It includes our overall objectives, vision of every department and an action plan has been made accordingly. The overarching concept is that of
living sustainably.