Take up Ladakh border issue with Centre, MLA urges Himachal Governor

Tribune News Service

Mandi, February 13

Lahaul and Spiti MLA Ravi Thakur yesterday met Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla in Shimla and raised the issue of the border dispute between Himachal and the Union Territory of Ladakh at Sarchu and Shinku La in Lahaul and Spiti district. He urged the Governor to take up the issue with the Central Government as well as the Himachal government and the Ladakh administration to resolve it. He submitted a memorandum in this regard to the Governor.

In the memorandum, the MLA said, “Shinku La and Sarchu are located on the border with Ladakh. According to the map of the Survey General of India, there is a bronze pillar installed at Sarchu since the time of Maha Punjab and it determines the boundary of the two states at Sarchu on the Manali-Leh highway in Lahaul and Spiti. At Shinku La, snowfall and rainwater, which flow towards Ladakh, determine its boundary and the water that flows towards Himachal determines its boundary.”

“Due to tourism promotion for more than two decades, the people of Ladakh and the Zanskar valley are coming towards Himachal at Sarchu and Shinku La in the Lahaul and Spiti border area for business and other reasons and working temporarily. Some of them are occupying Himachal territory illegally and constructing permanent structures at Sarchu. The administration of Ladakh is illegally constructing a police post at Sarchu. Due to this interference, tension has gripped the businessmen of Ladakh and Lahaul and Spiti. In the past, a scuffle had broken out between the businessmen of two states at Sarchu,” he added.

Ravi said, “I had raised the issue in the Vidhan Sabha in 2014-15 and the then Revenue Minister had assured me of determining the boundary through the Survey General of India and the Central Government. On the direction of the National Commission of Scheduled Tribes, the Surveyor General of India had visited Shinku La and Sarchu and summoned the officials of Lahaul and Spiti, Ladakh and Kargil administrations. The Surveyor General of India had asked the governments of both states to deposit fees for demarcation.”

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