Local people held a demonstration in Ladakh’s Leh district on Thursday against the Union Territory administration’s new COVID-19 containment rules and the move to charge between ₹2,500 and ₹3,000 at non-administrative quarantine facilities from the students and pilgrims who had returned. Scores of protesters took to the streets in Leh’s Chuchot, a containment zone, and began a demonstration against the rules to counter the pandemic in the region.
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The police resorted to lathi-charge to disperse the protesters.
Saira Bano, a Block Development Council chairperson, who was injured in the scuffle, demanded action against policemen who thrashed women protesters. “We have already conveyed [to the administration] that we are ready for surveillance of our kids and pilgrims, as per the WHO guidelines. The way rules are followed in other containment zones should apply in Leh as well,” said Ms. Bano.
According to Leh District Magistrate’s order, those arriving from outside Ladakh and have relatives in containment areas “will not be allowed to enter their villages under any circumstances... They shall be allowed to live with friends and relatives outside the containment zone for 14 days.”
Sayeeda Ladakhi, a councillor of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council-Leh (LAHDC-L) from Chuchot, in a letter addressed to Commissioner Secretary, Health, Rigzin Samphel, demanded that the U.T. administration rescind the order. She said the ₹2500 to ₹3000 tariff fixed by the DM for non-administrative quarantine centres had caused resentment among the people. “Students, pilgrims and patients have already suffered in the past two months due to the lockdown. They are forced to live in hotels paying heavy daily tariff,” she said.
Tundup Nubu Cheetha, another resident, asked why LAHDC-L had failed to organise a quarantine facility for people free of cost.
District magistrate, Leh, Sachin Kumar Vaishya, was not available for his comment.