Statehood: Parl panel to visit Ladakh and J&K from Aug. 17

New Delhi, Aug. 3: A parliamentary panel chaired by Congress leader Anand Sharma will be on a fiveday visit to the Union territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir starting August 17 to examine the administration and development of the region and review the working conditions of central police forces, sources said on Tuesday.

The visit by the MPs comes nearly two months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met top leaders of Jammu and Kashmir on June 24. It was the first high-level interaction between the Centre and political leaders from J-K after August 5, 2019, when the Centre revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated it into two union territories.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs will visit Leh, Srinagar and Jammu from August 17-21, according to the communication shared by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat with the committee members.

The agenda of the visit will be to examine the subject “Administration, Development and People’s Welfare in the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh”.

“The Committee will also review the working conditions of three Central Armed Police Forces namely Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Border Security Force (BSF),” the communication reads.

The majority of the members of the committee are from the ruling BJP.

As many as 14 leaders including Congress’ Ghulam Nabi Azad, National Conference’s Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah; PDP’s Mehbooba Mufti and J-K Apni Party’s Altaf Bukhari attended the meeting with Prime Minister Modi.

Most of the leaders in the meeting had raised the issue of restoration of statehood.

In October last year, the panel wanted to visit Ladakh to check how well the soldiers deployed in high-altitude forward areas were clothed and equipped for the winter, reported The Telegraph. But, the Centre opposed the proposal. The came after a Comptroller and Auditor General of India report flagged shortages of snow goggles and multi-purpose boots for the soldiers deployed at high altitudes in Siachen and Ladakh.

THE PARLIAMENTARY Standing Committee on Home Affairs will visit Leh, Srinagar and Jammu from August 17-21, according to the communication shared by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat with the committee members