Demanding district status to Zanskar sub-division and early completion of Nimoo-Padum Darcha road, a delegation of Bharatiya Janta Party, Zanskar convened a press conference on September 21 in Leh.

Stanzin Lakpa, Regional Coordinator, BJP Zanskar expressed his gratitude to the Modi government for declaring Ladakh as a Union Territory. Along with the historic move, he also seeks attention of the government on the long pending demand of separate district status to the Zanskar region.

Zanskar, 240 km away from the headquarter in Kargil faces lots of problem due to the remoteness of the region and lack of facilities. The region remains cut off from its main headquarter in winters.  Being deprived of the basic facilities such as education, health, connectivity, communication the region has been demanding district status for a long time.

Stanzin Lakpa said, “Zanskar is one of the oldest Tehsil of Ladakh regions of J&K pre-1953 along with Leh and Kargil. Both were given full-fledged district status while Zanskar remained as a subject of exploitation and politically neglected region for all these years”.

With the changing political scenario in Ladakh, he requested the Governor and the Modi Government to consider the demand for an overall development of the region. 

Talking about the early completion of Nimoo Padum Darcha road he said that it’s been 17 years since the work on this project was executed. 

He said, “We are happy that the road between Zanskar and Darcha has been roughly connected this year but the work progress between Nimoo and Padum is in deplorable pace. First, they have set the deadline in 2007 and then in 2014, 2021 and now they have set the deadline in 2024.  In April 2019, I visited and saw the work being carried out between Leh and Zanskar. At Bakula cave, the widening of the road is being done which is still going on at the same place very recently also”.

He alleged the slumber attitude and lack of coordination among the officials of the executing agency as one of the main reason behind the delay of the work. 

He appealed coordination of the officials and early completion of the road which is very important for the whole Ladakh region.
A copy of the memorandum was also submitted to the Governor J&K Satya Pal Malik and MP Ladakh, Jamyang Tsering Namgyal.