Srinagar: Leh Apex Body and Kargil Democratic Alliance, an amalgam of trade unions, and social, political and religious groups from Ladakh including residents held a protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Wednesday and urged for the inclusion of the Sixth Schedule, other rights.
Ladakh sought four demands including full statehood, a sixth schedule under the Indian Constitution, job reservation, a separate Public Service Commission for Ladakh, and two parliamentary seats for Leh and Kargil a year after the Govt of India led by BJP scrapped the limited autonomy of J&K and bifurcated the erstwhile state into two union territories.
"It has been four years and we cannot see any development happening in Ladakh even as we were promised development when the UT was made," said Ladakh residents.
They said the government's ignorance towards Ladakh forced them to reach the national capital as the development and safeguards and reservation for locals they expected didn’t come so far.
"We are concerned about our cultural identity, political representation as well as job security. LG and a few other bureaucrats can't decide our future," they said.
A protester said that they are disheartened witnessing young people not being able to get jobs.
“The government has supposedly promised twelve thousand roles, but these are merely on paper. Over the last three years since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, the government has not been able to develop a plan for Ladakh,” he stated.
On January 26, Wangchuk, the Ladakh-based engineer turned innovator announced a five-day long hunger strike at 18,380 feet high Khardung to invite the attention of the BJP-led Centre to the demands of the people of Ladakh, including the extension of the sixth schedule of the Constitution and environmental protection form unchecked industrial and commercial expansion.
The Apex and Kargil Alliance also boycotted the High Powered Committee announced by the Ministry of Home Affairs and headed by the Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanad Rai to discuss safeguards for the Union Territory of Ladakh. They demanded the incl of their four-point demands be included in the agenda of the committee.
(KNO)