Local people in this state have 85 percent reservation in jobs, domicile policy also changed

New Delhi: The central government has announced new reservation and domicile policies for Ladakh, which will provide great relief to the local people in employment and development. Along with this, many important steps have been taken to protect the culture, language and land of Ladakh. Under the new policies, 85 percent of jobs in Ladakh will be reserved for local people and one-third seats will be reserved for women in Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils. In the new policies, 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker sections (EWS) has been retained.

Who will be considered Domicile of Ladakh?

According to the new rules, those who have been living in Ladakh for 15 years or who have studied there for seven years and took the 10th or 12th examination, will be considered as Domicile of Ladakh. In addition, central government employees, All India Service officials, people working in public sector undertakings, banks, central universities or recognized research institutes who have served in Ladakh for 10 years, their children will also be eligible for domicile. The domicile certificate will be used for government jobs in Ladakh, as stated to Ladakh Civil Services Decision and Recruitment (Amendment) Regulation, 2025.

These 5 new districts were created in Ladakh

In August 2024 last year, the central government built 5 new districts of Janskar, Dras, Sham, Nubra and Changthang in Ladakh. These steps were taken to intensify development in Ladakh and improve the administration further. Ladakh is a union territory and is directly administered under the Ministry of Home Affairs. In Ladakh, English, Hindi, Urdu, Bhoti and Purugi have been given official language status. The use of English will continue as before in all government functioning. Along with this, the government has announced special efforts to promote other local languages ​​of Ladakh such as Idna (Dardi), Brookskat (Dardi), Balty and Ladakhi.

Why did the government make these new policies?

After the removal of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir in 2019, the people of Ladakh were demanding constitutional security for the protection of their culture, language and land. Keeping this demand in mind, the central government has made these new policies. Steps are being taken to further strengthen the two autonomous councils of Ladakh, Leh and Kargil. Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (Leh and Kargil) will now be reserved for at least one-third seats for women. These seats will be allocated in different areas. This decision is a big step towards empowering women and increasing their participation in Ladakh.

Center talks several times on Ladakh

The central government has interacted several times to listen to the demands of the people of Ladakh. In December 2023, a delegation from Ladakh was assured that fast work would be done to meet their demands. After this, the Ministry of Home Affairs formed a High Power Committee (HPC) under the chairmanship of Union Minister of State Nityanand Rai, which suggested several measures to protect the culture, language, land and employment of Ladakh. In October 2024, climate activist Sonam Wangchuk started an indefinite fast in Delhi, after which a conversation was held on 3 December 2024, 15 January 2025 and 27 May 2025 with Civil Society leaders of Ladakh. (PTI)