Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk and several other Ladakhis paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial on Wednesday night and later said they had Released from police custody and ended their fast.
The group submitted a memorandum to the government outlining their demands and promised to meet with the top leadership soon, Wangchuk said, adding that they had ended their fast.
Wangchuck told the media after the meeting: “We have submitted a memorandum to the government to protect Ladakh so that its ecology is protected under such constitutional provisions, which in this case is the Sixth Schedule, which gives Rights of local people to govern and manage resources” Visit the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial.
“Local people in the Himalayas should be empowered because they can best protect it,” he said.
“In the coming days we will meet with the prime minister, the president or the interior minister, and this is what the interior ministry has assured us,” he said.
“We are demanding democratic institutions for Ladakh and the Sixth Schedule is also a part of it. We have been assured that we will meet the top leadership and the date of the meeting will be fixed in a few days,” Wangchuk said.
A senior police officer confirmed that Wangchuk and all other “padayatris” were released that evening.
“They were allowed to go as they were given an assurance not to gather or conduct any pilgrimage as Section 163 was enforced in the central area of the national capital,” the official said.
Wangchuck is lodged at the Bawana police station, while the other ‘padayatris’ are lodged at three other police stations on the Delhi-Haryana border.
Around 9:30 pm, everyone was escorted by police to buses till Rajaghat, after which Wangchuk and all other “padayatris” were allowed to leave.
Police sources said Wangchuk may stay in Delhi for a few more days to seek meetings with the government.
Wangchuck said they had been assured that talks with representatives of Leh’s top body and the Kargil Democratic Alliance would resume within 15 days.
The “Delhi Chalo Padyatra” led by Wangchuck started from Leh a month ago. Around 170 people from Ladakh, who were marching towards Delhi to demand safeguards under the Sixth Schedule of the Union Territory Constitution, among others, were detained at Delhi’s Singhu border on Monday evening and taken to different police stations. There they were detained. Hunger strike.
The march was organized by the Leh Apex Body (LAB), which along with the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) has been spearheading the agitation for statehood in Ladakh for the past four years, seeking its inclusion in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, early recruitment process as well as Public Service Commission in Ladakh and Independent Lok Sabha seats in Leh and Kargil regions.
The Delhi Police detained them for enforcing Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (earlier Section 144 of the CrPC) in the jurisdiction of all police stations in New Delhi, north and central districts and borders with other states.