New Delhi, May 26 (IANS): Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh R.K. Mathur on Tuesday met Union Minister Jitendra Singh and discussed the COVID situation in the newly formed Union Territory among other issues, including revival of development activity.

Singh said the government appreciates the consistent effort with which the Ladakh administration has dealt with the COVID pandemic and also succeeded in containing it. Ladakh had caused initial alarm for the entire country when suddenly a number of cases surfaced from among those returning from Iran pilgrimage. However, the tally has since come down.

Singh thanked Prime Minister Modi for his instructions to give priority to peripheral areas of Ladakh and North East, as a result of which air cargo supplies started reaching there even before the lockdown. As of today, the store of ration, vegetables and fruits in Ladakh is in much bigger quantity than it would have normally been around this time of the year, he added.

The Minister also praised two young Deputy Commissioners of Leh and Kargil and two SSPs of these two districts respectively who were in touch on day-to-day basis and coordinated on various issues, which helped in facilitating supply of medical equipment and, later, the movement of people returning from different parts of the country.

Mathur apprised the Minister of the current situation and said now an effort is being made to revive development activity. He also discussed some of the projects related to power generation and construction work which had got delayed due to the pandemic and said very soon, these would be revived.

Among various projects in the pipeline, Minister also mentioned the project for processing of 'Leh Berry' for which the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has prepared a plan.