LEH: On November 24, 2025, the Union Territory of Ladakh's Finance Department issued Order No. 644-F, fundamentally restructuring financial decision-making authority in the region. The order strips the Lieutenant Governor of previously delegated powers for approving schemes and projects, transferring all such approvals directly to the Ministry of Home Affairs in New Delhi.
This administrative change arrives at a politically volatile moment, just two months after violent clashes left four protesters dead and dozens wounded, intensifying longstanding grievances about democratic representation and local autonomy.
Two months before this financial order was issued, Ladakh witnessed its bloodiest confrontation between protesters and security forces. On September 24, 2025, thousands gathered outside the BJP office in Leh, initially responding to elderly hunger strikers being hospitalised with unstable vitals. The clash resulted in four deaths and dozens of wounded when police responded to protesters with tear gas and bullets.
Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk, who had led a peaceful padyatra from Leh to Delhi in 2024, was subsequently jailed under the National Security Act. His wife, social entrepreneur Gitanjali Angmo, is fighting for his release while Wangchuk contests his detention as illegal, claiming his words were twisted. One protester, Stanzin Dorje, died by suicide after being troubled by the events.
The aftermath was marked by administrative crackdowns with authorities tightening movement restrictions, imposing curfews, cutting mobile data and prohibiting circulation of rumours on social media. A recent expose by the Wire.in highlighted the sense of surveillance under which Ladakh is reeling, triggering fear and silence.
Background
When the Modi government revoked Jammu and Kashmir's autonomy in 2019 and created Ladakh as a separate Union Territory, initial celebrations in Leh soon gave way to disillusionment. Ladakhis, who had long been demanding the UT status to escape the Kashmir dominance and the perceived ‘discrimination’, soon found that they had lost the limited democratic space and local decision-making their hill development councils once held.
The unfulfilled promises concerning jobs, constitutional safeguards and protections for resources have eroded trust, says leaders and activists from Ladakh. The region’s youth have been frustrated with the government's approach to employment generation. Continuous ignorance and the targeting of the recent protests as “anti-national” have deepened that sense of disillusionment.
The November Order and Its Implications
The November 2025 order makes three critical changes to financial delegation. Previously, the Lieutenant Governor could approve schemes and projects up to Rs. 100 crores. Under the revised order, this power has been entirely eliminated, with the revised delegations column showing a dash, indicating zero delegated authority. All project approvals, regardless of size, now require Ministry of Home Affairs sanction.
The Administrative Secretary's expenditure approval limit has similarly been reduced from Rs. 20 crores to zero, with the same requirement for central government approval. Interestingly, powers delegated to Chief Engineers, Superintending Engineers, and other technical officers remain unchanged. However, Note 1 specifies that contracts above Rs. 10 crores remain with the Lieutenant Governor, creating an administrative paradox since that power has simultaneously been stripped away.
The order's timing carries particular significance. It arrives during a period when Leh did not return to calm but simply fell quiet, with residents avoiding government offices and conversations breaking off when uniforms passed by.
Note 3 of the order requires all new proposals to be submitted to the Ministry of Home Affairs for necessary approval, while Note 4 specifies that these submissions must be routed through the Planning Development and Monitoring Department of UT Ladakh. This creates multiple bureaucratic layers between local needs and approval authority. Note 5 provides that ongoing projects already approved will continue under earlier delegation rules, a practical necessity that highlights the abruptness of the change for all future initiatives.
The order must be understood within Ladakh's unique constitutional position. The region has no Legislative Assembly, no MLAs, and sends only one MP to the Lok Sabha. The Hill councils in Leh and Kargil have been rendered increasingly powerless. Previously, when Ladakh was under the Jammu and Kashmir state system, people through the LAHDC held limited but tangible authority with dissent having a venue, a route, a process.
By centralising even routine financial approvals in New Delhi, the order increases bureaucratic distance between local needs and decision-making, slows implementation of development projects requiring multiple approvals, undermines local agency in determining regional priorities, and reinforces perceptions that Ladakh is viewed as a security periphery rather than a democratic community.
Today, under Union government rule, locals feel that grievances travel upward into a void and instead of receiving answers, residents say they feel the state's gaze.
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