6th Leh council: 26 newly elected councillors administered oath

Twenty-six newly elected councillors of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council were administered oath of office and secrecy around 9:30am at the Sindhu Sanskriti Kendra on Saturday.

Principal and district sessions judge Ranbir Singh Pathania administered the oath. Additional district commissioner Sonam Chosjor said BJP’s Tashi Gyalson of Lingshet constituency had been elected the new chief executive councillor while his party colleague Tsering Angchuk of Diskit constituency was elected the deputy chief executive councillor. The term of the fifth Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC, Leh) will end on Friday.

The oath-taking ceremony coincided with the first anniversary of Ladakh’s conversion into a Union Territory (UT) without legislature. On October 31, 2019, Ladakh was made a UT without legislature while J&K was converted into UT with legislature.

BJP had won 15 seats in the LAHDC polls conducted on October 26. Congress had bagged nine seats, while independent candidates had won two seats. The Leh council has 30 seats, of which four councillors are nominated.

The BJP and Congress had fielded candidates in all 26 constituencies while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) fielded 19 candidates. Twenty-three independents were also in the fray.

Leh has been demanding constitutional safeguards under the sixth schedule. The safeguards also guarantee more teeth to the two hill development councils of Leh and Kargil. Notably, the BJP government has not extended the new land laws to Ladakh.

Source: Read Full Article