Sonam Wangchuk released from detention, breaks fast
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New Delhi(PTI): Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk and several others from Ladakh paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at his memorial Rajghat on Wednesday evening and later said they have been released from police detention and ended their fast.
The group gave a memorandum to the government listing their demands, and have been assured of a meeting with top leadership soon, Wangchuk said, adding they have ended their fast.
"We have given a memorandum to the government to protect Ladakh under such constitutional provisions so that its ecology can be preserved, in this case it is the Sixth Schedule, which gives locals the right to govern and manage the resources," Wangchuk told media after visiting Mahatma Gandhi's memorial.
"Locals should be empowered in the Himalayas because they can best preserve it," he said.
"In the coming days, we will meet the prime minister, president or home minister, this is the assurance we have been given by the home ministry," he said.
"We have demanded a democratic set-up for Ladakh, and the Sixth Schedule is also a part of it. We have been assured that we will meet top leadership, and the date of meeting will be confirmed in a couple of days," Wangchuk said.
A senior police officer confirmed that Wangchuk and all other 'padayatris' were released in the evening.
"They were allowed to go after an assurance from them of not gathering or holding any yatra as Section 163 is imposed in central parts of the national capital," the officer said.
Wangchuk was kept at the Bawana police station while other 'padayatris' were at three other police stations at Delhi-Haryana border.
All were escorted in buses by police personnel till Rajghat at about 9.30 pm and later, Wangchuk and all others 'padayatris' were allowed to go.
Police sources said Wangchuk might stay in Delhi for a few more days to seek meeting with the government.
Wangchuk said they have been assured that talks with the representatives of the Leh Apex Body and Kargil Democratic Alliance will resume within 15 days.
Wangchuk was leading the 'Delhi Chalo Padyatra', which began from Leh a month ago. Around 170 people from Ladakh, who were marching to Delhi demanding safeguards under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution for the Union Territory among other things, were detained on Monday night at Delhi's Singhu border, and were taken to different police stations where they went on a hunger strike.
The march was organised by the Leh Apex Body (LAB), which along with the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA), has been spearheading an agitation for the past four years to demand statehood for Ladakh, seek its inclusion under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, early recruitment process along with a public service commission for Ladakh and separate Lok Sabha seats for Leh and Kargil districts.
Delhi Police had detained them citing the imposition of section 163 (which was earlier section 144 of CrPC) of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita in the districts of New Delhi, North and Central and all police stations jurisdiction sharing the borders with other states.
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Railways Ministry refuses to shift Maharaja Saloon Coach from Delhi National Rail Museum to Mysuru
Mysuru: The Ministry of Railways has turned down the local MP’s request to shift the Mysore Maharaja Saloon Coach, which is currently placed at the National Rail Museum in New Delhi, to the Mysuru Rail Museum.
Mysuru MP Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar and his predecessor Pratap Simha in 2022 had requested that the coach be shifted. The MPs had stated that Mysuru was the seat of power of the Mysore Maharajas and placing the coach for display at the city museum rather than in New Delhi made greater sense, The Hindu has reported.
The Ministry of Railway, in its official response dated September 30, called the saloon coach of the Mysore Maharaja, which was more than 125 years old, one of the prestigious exhibits at the National Rail Museum and explained that it could suffer irreparable damage during the long-distance transportation from New Delhi to Mysuru.
Aashima Mehrotra, Executive Director, Heritage, Railway Board, addressed a letter to the General Manager of the South Western Railway, stating that the Mysuru Rail Museum already has the Maharani’s Royal Carriage and a dining-cum-kitchen car as an exhibit.
The Railway authorities had reportedly not literally rejected the MP’s plea to shift the coach to Mysuru, the local authorities have drawn this inference based on the contents of the letter from the higher authorities. The communiqué from the Railway Board has also stated that a virtual tour of the Maharaja’s Saloon was accessible to all on the Google Art and Culture platform, which has also been considered a clarification that the Maharaja’s saloon coach would not be shifted.
The saloon was used by Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar and the coach was built in 1899 at the Bangalore Workshop of Mysore State Railway, reportedly as a three-carriage rake inclusive of the Maharani’s coach and the dining-cum-kitchen car. The undercarriage of the coach was designed in a manner that would enable its use on broad gauge and metre gauge tracks as well, sources added. The cost of fabricating and building the coach was ₹29,508 each and the Maharani’s coach was built in 1914.
