Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk on Sunday launched an indefinite fast at the Ladakh Bhawan in Delhi after he and other protestors were denied permission to hold a demonstration at Jantar Mantar seeking the Sixth Schedule status for Ladakh, PTI reported.
The Sixth Schedule under Article 244 (Administration of Scheduled Areas and Tribal Areas) of the Constitution guarantees certain protections for land and a nominal autonomy for citizens in designated tribal areas. In Ladakh, more than 97% of the population belongs to the Scheduled Tribes.
Wangchuk told reporters that they had been forced to start their protest at the Ladakh Bhawan after failing to find another venue in the national capital.
Wangchuk had said in a social media post earlier on Sunday that the police had denied them the permission to hold demonstrations at “the officially designated place for protests”.
The Delhi Police said that they had received the request at a short notice and the organisers had not specified the duration of the planned protest.
As per the guidelines, applications for holding protests at Jantar Mantar must be sent at least 10 days before the event and that the demonstrations are to be held only between 10 am and 5 pm, police said.
Jigmat Paljor, the coordinator of the Leh Apex Body, told PTI that they were looking for alternative venues and that discussions are going on with the authorities. The Leh Apex Body represents the protestors.
On Saturday night, Wangchuk claimed in a video posted on his social media account that when the protestors ended their previous fast at the Rajghat in Delhi on Wednesday, they had been assured of an appointment with the “top leadership of the country within two days”.
However, the protestors had to resume their fast after this was denied, he said.
On Wednesday, Wangchuk said that he had given a memorandum to the Union government with a set of demands to protect Ladakh under constitutional provisions and seeking to resume talks within 15 days to address the residents’ immediate concerns.
Wangchuk made the statement shortly after he and 150 other protestors from the Union territory were released by the Delhi Police and allowed to visit Rajghat, the memorial for Mahatma Gandhi.
The group had been detained at Delhi’s Singhu border on the night of September 30 while marching to the national capital to demand constitutional safeguards for Ladakh. On Tuesday, they launched an indefinite fast at the police stations where they have been held. They had ended this fast on Wednesday.
They are demanding statehood for Ladakh, its inclusion under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, job reservation for locals and two Lok Sabha and one Rajya Sabha seats for the region.
On August 5, 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government rescinded the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution and bifurcated the state into the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
This, along with the lack of a legislature in Ladakh, has led to increasing insecurities among the residents of the Union territory about their land, nature, resources and livelihoods and stoked fears that the region’s cultural identity and fragile ecosystem may be in jeopardy.
Wangchuk had also undertaken a 21-day hunger strike ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in March demanding statehood for Ladakh and the protection of the Himalayan ecology.
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