One on One | Ajeet Kumar Sahu, Commissioner Secretary, UT Administration of Ladakh
Ladakh, a trans-Himalayan region in the northernmost part of India, has become a popular tourist destination in the last few years owing to the scenic Ladakh landscape figuring in the backdrop in many Indian films. Its estimated population was 3.1 lakh in 2020, around 40 per cent of which has no access to available infrastructure. Tourism contributes approximately 50 per cent to the GDP of Ladakh, which is also a seasonal trade because of extreme temperatures during winters. Limited connectivity, agricultural dependency, digital divide, lack of healthcare facilities, localised education system are some of the key challenges faced by the Union Territory, as outlined by the recently released document ‘Vision 2050 for UT of Ladakh’. To discuss more about these issues and possible solutions, Pooja Upadhyay, Reporter, Urban Update, spoke with Ajeet Kumar Sahu, who has been Commissioner Secretary of the UT Administration of Ladakh, since August 2020. In this interview, Sahu gets candid about the initiatives taken by his administration to develop Ladakh and the challenges he has faced whilst making services like healthcare, and education accessible to people. Excerpts from the interview….
Ladakh: A New Administration and New Hopes 32 June 2022 | www.urbanupdate.in
