Leh-based body to organize foot march to protest land loss to Indian industrialists
Leh: Days after withdrawing its call for big border march amidst imposition of restrictions by the administration in Ladakh region of occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the Leh Apex Body (LAB) has said that a small group of their representatives would undertake a foot march in coming days to Changthang near the Chinese border to show the reality of farmers losing their pasture land to Indian industrialists in the absence of constitutional safeguards.
According to Kashmir Media Service, making the announcement at a press conference in Leh, well-known climate activist Sonam Wangchuk who is part of the LAB said the march will be undertaken very soon but the dates are yet to be decided.
The LAB, along with the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA), is spearheading an agitation over the past four years to demand rights including Statehood for Ladakh and its inclusion in the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution.
“Over 40,000 acres of prime pasture land is being handed over to industrialists for setting up solar projects. We want to show this reality and have decided to undertake a foot march to Changthang…Only 10 to 20 leaders involved in the ongoing agitation will be part of the march who will go from village to village to show how much land was taken away,” Wangchuk said.
Wangchuk said the aim of the march is to convey a message to the people in Ladakh and outside that the people are losing their home land in absence of any protection under the Sixth Schedule.
“We have not yet decided the dates for the march but it will take place very soon”, he said, asserting that it would be a peaceful march.
He said that a meeting of LAB also decided to continue the ongoing struggle through chain hunger strikes and protests without affecting the farming activities and tourism which has started picking up with the onset of the spring.
