Leh/Jammu, May 2 -- Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said Ladakh was a model of rapid transformation since the 2019 bifurcation of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, and listed sweeping political, social and economic changes in the Union territory. The region has remained at the centre 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 and asserted that the decision had brought visible change across sectors.His remarks came amid renewed calls by the Leh Apex Body and the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) for resumption of talks with the Centre on statehood and inclusion under the Sixth Schedule. "Ladakh had an old demand to be made a Union territory. The basic reason for this demand was that development was not taking place here. Now I want to tell you what has been done after it was made a Union Territory in 2019," Shah said. He 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. Mobile towers have increased from 344 to 653, while helipads have gone up from seven to 41, he said. On power infrastructure, Shah added that grid-related works have increased from 145 to 184, while distribution transformers have gone up from 1,182 to 3,153....