JAMMU, July 2 -- A two member team from the ministry of home affairs is scheduled to hold talks with the Leh Apex Body (LAB) and Kargil Democratic Alliance over Ladakh's demand of sixth schedule and statehood with legislature. "Additional secretary Prashant Lokhande and Anurag Kumar special director IB, who is in-charge J&K and Ladakh affairs are coming for a meeting with LAB and KDA on Thursday evening," said Chering Dorjay Lakrook, former minister and co-convenor of Leh Apex Body (LAB). "The visit of the two member panel to meet us is a prelude to main talks with the Centre over statehood with legislature and sixth schedule," he added. However, no date for the main talks with the home ministry has been given to us as yet, he said. The former minister said that LAB and KDA will hold a meeting on Thursday before attending the meeting with home ministry officials. It would be for the first time that the home ministry panel will visit Ladakh to hold talks after the start of a dialogue process with LAB and KDA over sixth schedule and statehood with legislature for the Ladakh UT. "Though no agenda has been decided for Thursday's meeting, our focus will remain on issues that were agreed upon in principle during the May 22 sub-committee meeting in New Delhi," Dorjay said. On May 23, following a meeting with the MHA, the Leh Apex Body (LAB) and the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA), had claimed they reached an in-principle understanding with the government of India on restoring democracy in Ladakh and providing constitutional safeguards on the lines of Article 371 A, F, and G (as applied to Nagaland, Sikkim and Mizoram). At that time, the chief secretary of Ladakh, Ashish Kundra, had said, "The meeting was held in a constructive environment, and the history of negotiations over the past two years was brought out. The fact of the matter is that the Government of India placed a few options before the representatives, and amongst them, one of the options was Article 371. The participants were receptive to the broad contours of the options, and everybody appreciated the contours of the negotiations. I would say there is positive forward movement." On April 30, the Union home minister Amit Shah on his two-day visit to Ladakh had met leaders from LAB & KDA for a meeting. It was Shah's maiden visit ever since Ladakh was made a UT in 2019. The LAB has formulated a draft proposal for a new union territory-level elected body vested with legislative, financial and executive powers along with constitutional safeguards under Article 371. The draft proposal will also be discussed with the KDA before arriving at a consensus. On June 23, a shutdown was observed across Ladakh UT in response to a bandh call by the LAB and the KDA to protest against the Centre's alleged backtracking on key decisions by failing to incorporate key points agreed during May 22 talks....