Leh: Asserting that Ladakh has remained the top priority of Prime Minister Narendra Modi led regime, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said that the Union Territory has witnessed rapid transformation since the 2019.

Addressing a gathering here, Shah listed sweeping political, social and economic changes the region witnessed after bifurcation of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. “Development of the region has remained the priority of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government’s development agenda,” he said.

Shah said Ladakh had long demanded Union Territory status due to lack of development. “Today change is visible across all sectors,” he added.

Shah said that Ladakh has now seven districts and 193 panchayats, with five new districts — Sham, Nubra, Changthang, Zanskar and Drass — created and notifications already issued.

Shah said that local languages had also been given administrative recognition. “Earlier only Hindi and English were in use, but now Bhoti, Purgi and Urdu have also been accorded importance”.

Highlighting infrastructure growth, he said road length in Ladakh has increased from about 1,799 km before 2019 to 4,040 km now. “The road constructions has almost doubled.”

Shah said that the number of bridges has risen from 19 to 72 increasing the number by three times.

Spelling out development in other sectors, he said that mobile towers have increased from 344 to 653, while helipads have gone up from seven to 41, he said. “Snow-clearing machines, crucial for the region, have increased from 60 to 215.” On power infrastructure, Shah said grid-related works have increased from 145 to 184, while distribution transformers have gone up from 1,182 to 3,153.”

“I am giving these figures on this scale because after becoming a Union Territory, it (Ladakh) has remained the focus of the Narendra Modi government, the focus of the prime minister of the country, and so many development works have taken place together,” the minister said.

He said the impact of better infrastructure was........

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