STATE TIMES NEWS
LEH: The State government wants to promote Ladakh region as a gateway to connect with the outer world, said Chief Minister Mehboba Mufti while addressing a special session of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Leh here on Friday.
The Chief Minister said, “Government wants to promote Ladakh region as a gateway for the State to connect with the outer world,” adding that, Ladakh has a great potential in tourism and it would be exploited optimally.
She said the endeavor of state government would be to connect regions, people and places in the State. Ladakh holds a special place for the State as it connects Jammu & Kashmir with the whole of Central Asia.
The aim of stitching the present alliance in Jammu & Kashmir was to connect with every region and place and find solutions to the problems of the State together with each other, the CM stressed.
She said under her government, there would be no bias for or against any region and every section of the society would have equitable opportunities of growth.
The CM further said that she favours opening of more routes to get the State connected to more and more emerging economic opportunities. She said she favours starting of Kailash Mansarovar Yatra through Leh so that the area gets tourist and economic boost. Similarly, opening of ancient Central Asian routes like Yarkand and Xingiang in the region would not only give the region more connectivity but expose it to a vast market of Central Asia, she added.
She assured that the issues confronting the Hill Council would be looked into. She also assured to look into the issue of pending liabilities of LAHDC on account of previous cloudburst, adding that, work on Zojila tunnel would start soon and assured to look into the bottlenecks coming in the expeditious execution of the project.
Chief Executive Councilor, LAHDC, Dr. Sonam Dawa also spoke on the occasion. Chairman, Legislative Council, Haji Anayat Ali, Minister for Education, Naeem Akhar, Minister for Cooperatives & Ladakh Affairs T. Dorjey, Chairman, LAHDC, Leh Dr. Sonam Dawa, Executive members of LAHDC, Leh, Deputy Commissioner, Leh Prasanna Ramaswamy, SP, Leh Uday Bhaskar and other senior officers were present in the meeting.
Earlier in the day, the Chief Minister inaugurated and laid foundation of several tourism development projects in the region.
Meanwhile,the Chief Minister inaugurated a state of the art Central Asian museum in the town built by the Tourism Department in collaboration with a local community service group, Anjuman-e-Moinul Islam.
The museum has the artefacts, manuscripts and pieces of heritage collected from Central Asia, Tibet and Kashmir from 18th and 19th centuries and some are even 400 years old.
Interacting with the people on the occasion, Mehbooba Mufti appreciated the local historian Abdul Ghani Sheikh for having conceptualised the idea of the museum. She also complimented the efforts of German scholar Andre for having worked closely with the authorities for materialising the concept.
She said we need to preserve our cultural roots for our coming generations so that they remain connected to the past. She announced a grant of Rs 20 lakh for adding more artefacts to the museum.
Today also marks the beginning of the new Ladakhi year and a local festival called Galdan Namchod. The Chief Minister extended her best wishes to the people on the occasion.
The credit of construction of the VICTORY bridge at KHALTSE (leh) goes to a Jammu based firm..M/s ACE ENGINEERING INFRATECH INDIA PVT LTD..According to the director of the firm Puneet Resutra, this is the longest deck type Bridge in India with a clear span of 75 meter with 12 meter width, ever built,at an altitude of 10000ft above sea level and at a height of more than 400ft above ground level.
