Unemployed youth hold protest in Leh, demand recruitment

Leh: More than a year after the bifurcation of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories, the youth of Ladakh continue to protest against the authorities in the region for failing to hold any recruitment process.

The unemployed youth and the support gained by them from different organizations blamed the central government and the local administration for outsourcing some of the posts during a peaceful protest on Monday.

A peaceful protest march was organized by the Unemployed Youth Association Ladakh which was supported by some of the premier local bodies like Christian and Muslim community besides the Buddhist Association.

Sources informed that the joint peaceful protest rally started early Monday morning from Nawang Dorjay Stobdain (NDS) stadium and reached Polo Ground leh where the protesters along with leaders of different organizations including the student bodies, Buddhist Association, Anjuman Imamia, Christian Community, and Anjuman Moin Ul Islam and others gathered.

At polo ground, they said that a program concerning the challenges and problems faced by the youth of the region related to unemployment was held and huge participation of both males and females was witnessed during which several speakers highlighted the grievances mainly related to the event.

The marching protesters were holding placards that read “Give Us Job Or Give Us Bullet”, “UT Govt Shame On You”, “No Job No Vote”, and “Student Voices Matter”, besides others and raised slogans against the government for not holding the recruitment process in the region ever since the Ladakh was made as a separate Union Territory.

President of All Ladakh Unemployment Youth Association (ALUYA) president Tundup said that the protest was organized given that since Ladakh was made as a separate UT not a single permanent recruitment was done which has resulted in an immense crisis in both Leh and Kargil.

Tundup said that no job creation has been done by far in the Ladakh region and around 1000 posts filled were done on an outsourcing basis as contractual only while no permanent recruitment process has been made leaving the unemployed youth in distress.

“Our demands include an immediate permanent recruitment process be initiated by the administration early, a blanket ban on outsourcing of jobs, and a Ladakh public service board be constituted in no time”, the unemployed youth president said.

He said that in case the administration fails to initiate concrete steps on the demands raised by them early, they will hit the streets again and hold protests at higher volumes in times to come.

Meanwhile, a complete shutdown was observed in Leh upto 2 pm in support of the protest program. During the event, no untoward incident was reported and the protest concluded peacefully. (KNO)