Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk seeks talks with Centre after being released from detention
Locals should be empowered in the Himalayas because they can best preserve it, he said after being allowed to visit Rajghat.
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Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk on Wednesday 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, PTI reported.
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 Indian Express reported. Wangchuk also said the group had ended their fast.
The group was detained at Delhi’s Singhu border on Monday night 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.
“We have given a memorandum to the government to protect Ladakh under such constitutional provisions so that its ecology can be preserved,” Wangchuk told reporters after visiting Rajghat on Wednesday. “In this case, it is the Sixth Schedule, which gives locals the right to govern and manage the resources.”
The Sixth Schedule under Article 244 (Administration of Scheduled Areas and Tribal Areas) of the Constitution of India guarantees certain protections for land and a nominal autonomy for citizens in designated tribal areas. In Ladakh, more than 97% of the population...
