Ladakh talks resume, Centre offers special provisions under Article 371: Report

The Union government on Wednesday said that special provisions under Article 371 of the Constitution can be considered for Ladakh, the Apex Body Leh and Kargil Democratic Alliance told The Hindu after a meeting with home ministry officials.

The two civil society coalitions have been leading the movement seeking constitutional safeguards for Ladakh.

They resumed talks with the Union home ministry on Wednesday, nearly a month after four persons were killed in police firing during protests seeking constitutional safeguards for Ladakh.

Article 371 deals with “temporary, transitional and special provisions” and allows decentralised governance, with a degree of administrative autonomy. It is applicable in 12 states: Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Telangana.

“It was indicated to us by MHA officials that Article 371 can be considered for Ladakh, but we were adamant on inclusion under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution and statehood,” Cherring Dorjay Lakruk, co-convenor of the Apex Body Leh, told The Hindu.

He added that although no assurances were given, ministry officials told them that they would “come back to us soon”.

Sajjad Kargili of the Kargil Democratic Alliance also confirmed this to the newspaper.

Lakruk told The Hindu that the Apex Body Leh continued to demand that activist Sonam Wangchuk and 20 others detained after the violence be released.

Wangchuk was arrested under the National Security Act in Leh on September 26, two days after the violence. He was later taken to the jail in Jodhpur.

The Union government has claimed that the violence was incited by Wangchuk's “provocative statements”.

The police firing and violence on September 24 broke out during protests demanding statehood for Ladakh and its inclusion in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. Demonstrators clashed with and threw stones at the police, and set fire to the Bharatiya Janata Party office and a police vehicle.

After Wangchuk's detention, the Apex Body Leh and the Kargil Democratic Alliance had withdrawn from negotiations with the government, stating that “talks cannot be held at gunpoint”.

The primary reason for calling off the dialogue was the lack of commitment by the Union government to hold a judicial inquiry into the killing of the four persons, the Apex Body Leh had said.

On October 17, the Union home ministry announced a judicial inquiry, headed by former Supreme Court judge, Justice BS Chauhan, into the killings.

On August 5, 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government abrogated the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution and bifurcated the state into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

The lack of a legislature in Ladakh has led to increasing insecurities among the residents of the Union Territory about their land, nature, resources and livelihoods and stoked fears that the region's cultural identity and fragile ecosystem may be in jeopardy.

In this backdrop, civil society groups have been demanding that Ladakh be included in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, which would allow for the creation of autonomous development councils to govern land, public health and agriculture.

Also read: Ladakh violence: How government inaction on its promises on autonomy has fuelled frustration

Source: Scroll
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