Wangchuk at Jantar Mantar…
– Photo: Amar Ujala
Expansion
Environmentalist Sonam Wangchuk’s fight to save Ladakh’s eco system and include it in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution has now reached Delhi. Under his leadership, many organizations and people of Ladakh demonstrated at Jantar Mantar on Wednesday.
Wangchuk said he was grateful to the BJP for giving UT status to Ladakh, but Home Minister Amit Shah, who had promised the people of Ladakh in 2019 to include it in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, has not yet fulfilled it. The government has given a coat to Ladakh, but the button has not been received yet. Along with Sonam Wangchuk, all the leaders of Leh-Kargil Democratic Alliance Front, students of Ladakh studying in Delhi were present here. Dozens of leaders like former Ladakh MP Thupstan Chhewang, Congress leader Asghar Ali Karbalai, Sajjad Kargili, who do politics for Ladakh students in Delhi, were on the dais.
To save the environment of Ladakh, earlier Wangchuk did his climate fast for five days in minus twenty-five degrees at an altitude of 1500 feet. Sonam Wangchuk from Jantar Mantar said that the BJP in its election manifesto had promised to include Ladakh in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.
Half found after 70 years – Thupstan Chhewang
Thupstan Chhewang said that the people of Ladakh have been demanding a UT with Legislative Assembly for almost 70 years. But the Home Minister gave UT in 2019 but gave Governor’s rule instead of Legislative Assembly. In Ladakh, the governor and director are all from outside. For three years, the UT Administration in Ladakh did not take out a single recruitment. Only police, army and paramilitary forces have recruited. We do not want such a system of governance.
The people of Ladakh will decide their own fate
Sonam Wangchuk said that three years ago the government gave UT status to Ladakh without assembly. When Sikkim with a population of 2.5 lakh can get the status of a state with assembly, then Ladakh with a population of three lakh should also get this right. Ladakh was centralized. But the citizens of Ladakh want to decide their own destiny. It takes time for LG to understand Ladakh. In 2-3 years, by the time LG understands the mountains, it is time for him to leave. The people of Ladakh do not want business and pollution in a golden bowl. They need open sky and clean running water.
