Ladakh’s Kargil district on Friday observed a shutdown in protest against “growing unemployment” and “discrimination” during recruitment for jobs.
The call for a shutdown was issued by the All India Kargil Ladakh Students Union and was supported by the local political parties and religious bodies, besides the Panchayat Coordination Committee-Kargil.
Most shops and business establishments remained closed in Kargil.
The call for a shutdown began after the UT administration recently released a selection list of Class IV employees in Leh district but not for Kargil.
“This smacks of discrimination. The selection list was pending for over nine months. The UT administration chose only to release the list of selected candidates for Leh but not Kargil,” said Sajad Kargili, a social activist and a politician.
The student community was also protesting against the ineligibility of aspirants from Ladakh to apply for posts in the J&K Bank.
“The new domicile law has limited the J&K Bank jobs only to locals from J&K with domicile certificates. No one from Ladakh is eligible for employment in the bank,” an aspirant from Kargil said.
Meanwhile, the National Conference (NC) extended its support to the student community. “The National Conference stands by the student community in Ladakh and extends its complete support to the call for a strike. The points raised by the students are genuine and are extremely important in nature. These issues pertain not only to the students, but to the future of Kargil,” NC general secretary Zakir Hussain said.
