Jammu, September 13: The state of Jammu and Kashmir has no dearth of controversies and every day we wake up to a fresh controversy to keep the political pot boiling even as the real issues are getting over-shadowed and development takes a hit.
However what we seem to be forgetting in this melee is that certain sections, societies and regions are getting marginalized while the fight between Kashmir and Jammu region hogs most of the lime light in terms of media coverage as well as that of addressing the basic issues of the people.
Ladakh the most strategic region of the Jammu and Kashmir has hardly been in news for the past several decades except for a few occasions like, Indo Pak wars, Kargil war or a Sindhu festival or any celebration here or there.
If one takes away the focus from irrelevant issues that occupy our minds most of the time in one-up-manship between the two warring regions once faces a stark reality that our third most important partner is not only getting marginalized but also emotionally hurt as no one seems to be bothered about this area while the two regions fight each other for premier institutions and other financial grants from centre.
Take for example the case of AIIMS, IIT, IIM, Law University, construction of smart cities, IT Parks and other infrastructure, Ladakh is hardly mentioned as a potential deserving region while Kashmir and Jammu take the fight to streets.
The question here we want to raise is don’t push Ladakhis’ to wall and don’t go overboard to seek everything for Kashmir or Jammu while the strategic place like Ladakh is getting a mal treatment as far as development is concerned.
There might be many arguments that Ladakh is also a part of Kashmir region but how many times have Kashmiris asked anything for Ladakh exclusively.
How many times have the state government asked any major institute, a smart city a medical institute or IIT etc for Ladakh?
The fact remains that Ladakh deserves all these things more than Kashmir or Jammu as it remains cut off from the rest of the world for most of the time and hardly has the modern facilities like good hospitals, institutes or even colleges.
We have seen how large numbers of Ladakhi students enroll themselves in different colleges academic or professional in Jammu or Srinagar only because they lack the basic facilities back home and need more such faculties to take the Ladakh out of the medieval ages where Ladakhis’ have to fight even for an additional flight and concession in air tickets
The only thing that the government seems to have thought of Ladakh for the past several decades are much awaited Zojila tunnels which are said to make route to Ladkah an all weather road in future.
When that dream is realized is yet to be seen as such projects are not only time consuming but also depend on various factors natural or manmade.
The major attraction in Ladakh is its international potential for tourism but then who cares while the sun is shining over Kashmir and patronization of powers that be is focused only on Kashmir tourism.
Had it not been so Ladakh could have been converted into an Alaska of Jammu and Kashmir as it is internationally favorite tourism destination but lacks effective marketing due to political disinterest and lethargy?
The government has been talking about tourism development in the state on equal basis but what remarkable has been done for the projection of Ladakh as an international tourist destination of India?
For such a destination not only marketing but also the basic infrastructure needs to be created which is lacking here.
Why does the government not recommending Ladakh for a smart city project which could have turned the fortunes of Ladakh overnight.
It is time the political classes of both the regions realize and stop their greed for more and act as big brothers to seek similar facilities for Ladakh before it gets completely marginalized and they feel alien in their own mother land.
The Earthnews has decided to keep a tab on the developmental projects for Ladakh and would continue to highlight the discrimination meted out to Ladakh region.