Ladakhis seek govt help amid face-off with China

Dozens of villages don’t have any communication lines for many days.

Dozens of nomads and shepherds are trying to get help of the administration to take their livestock for grazing into Kargil or into the Sonmarg area of Kashmir as army and troops deployed after the standoff with China are not allowing any civilian movement in the areas near the trouble points in eastern Ladakh, many residents told this reporter from Leh.

All the local politicians of Ladakh, especially councillors of Ladakh Hill Development Council (LHDC), are not happy with the newly created UT administration of Ladakh and they feel that they have been left without any powers and bureaucrats posted were not responsive to the plight of the general public, especially after the growing cases of coronavirus and the standoff with the Chinese army.

People claimed that dozens of villages are without any communication lines from the past 20 days and the authorities are not responding even to the requests of Ladakh politicians and other people of influence, including the local leaders of BJP.

Shepherds of Chushul area of Ladakh have been trying to get the government to move out with their livestock from Ladakh as they are not being allowed to move into the pastures by the army. Namgial Dorjey, local Congress leader and former councillor of the border sub-division of Durbuk, told the media recently that the government was doing nothing for the people trapped in his area.

According to the locals from Leh, thousands of people in the border sub-division of Durbuk and Chushul were having no mobile connectivity as the authorities had snapped all such means of communication as a precautionary measure in these areas due to growing tension with the Chinese army.

Urgain Chodon, BJP leader of Nyoma, recently told the media that he has been writing and also communicating with the central leadership of BJP about the Chinese incursions since April this year, but claimed that there was no response from New Delhi. This reporter tried to contact Urgain Chodon, but she was not available for comments.

Recently on Facebook and also in July 2019, Chodon had urged the Central government to take note of Chinese incursions in Ladakh area. She had posted many pictures showing Chinese soldiers constructing roads in May last year.

It is in place to mention that recently councillors of Ladakh Hill Development Council had written a letter to Divisional Commissioner Ladakh asking for restoration of communication lines and extending their support to the Indian Army and also mentioning about their hardships due to the lack of mobile phones amid growing pandemic. They asked Divisional Commissioner of Ladakh Saugat Biswas to ensure the supply of essential items to all the villages near the trouble spots and expressed their concern that the authorities were not responding to their requests.

Many villagers from Leh told this reporter that they were trying to bring their families to Leh town as the mobile phones were shut for the past 20 days in Changthang region of Ladakh. They said that areas like Chumoor, Nyoma, Nidar, Hemya and many more villages were facing communication blackout along with dozens of other villages in Tangste subdivision of Ladakh.

Councilor Nyma Thupstan Wangchuk recently told the media on telephone that the authorities were not responding, especially L-G of UT Ladakh and Divisional Commissioner of Ladakh. He said that such attitude of the authorities towards the people of Ladakh is unfortunate as they have always sided with the army and were patriotic people.