The Ladakh administration has cancelled the land allotted to the Himalayan Institute of Alternative Learning (HIAL) in Leh, triggering strong opposition from its founder and climate activist Sonam Wangchuk. He described the move as a “witch-hunt” aimed at silencing the demand for statehood and the extension of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution to the Union Territory.
The Leh Apex Body (LAB), which along with the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) has been leading the agitation for these demands for four years, also condemned the decision. LAB leaders warned that they will not stay silent and that the responsibility for the fallout will lie with those trying to “suppress our voice.”
In his August 21 order, Leh Deputy Commissioner Romil Singh Donk said 1,076 kanal and 1 marla of land (over 53.8 hectares) allotted to HIAL “stands escheated to the State, i.e., LAHDC (Leh Autonomous Hill Development Council) and the tehsildar, Leh, shall remove all the encumbrances from the said piece of state land as per provisions of the law and effect entries in the revenue record accordingly”.
The order added that the land in Phyang was originally leased to HIAL for 40 years, but it had not been used for the allotted purpose as “no university (as recognised by law) has been set up yet.”
“No lease agreement has been executed in respect of the allotted land and no formal handing over and taking over of the said land has taken place through tehsildar, Leh, till date, as per record,” the order issued on August 21 said.
Responding to the order, Wangchuk and HIAL’s chief executive officer called the decision “motivated” and an attempt to harass them. They announced plans to challenge the cancellation in court.
“HIAL was established in 2017-18 and we received a notice yesterday (August 22) that the land allotment to the institute stands cancelled on three points which are baseless that can be proved with data, facts and evidence,” its CEO and co-founder Gitanjali Angmo, an entrepreneur, social worker and educator, told mediapersons here.
Angmo, flanked by Wangchuk. said more than 400 students have completed fellowships and long-term and short-term courses at the institute in the last five years.
“This is an alternative university and does not require UGC registration but we applied the same on March 16, 2022, and deposited Rs 15 lakh on March 28, 2022… We met (education minister) Dharmendra Pradhan on March 15, 2023, and he proudly tweeted about our meeting with him,” she said.
But when she met him again in November 2024, she was told that the institute’s file had been kept on hold for three years because of Wangchuk’s role in the movement for Ladakh’s Sixth Schedule status.
After the formation of Ladakh Union Territory in August 2019, she said they approached the government time and again for completing the lease deed but “got a response from them that the policy for lease has not been formulated and in the meanwhile, you can carry on with construction activities”.
“The land was allotted by LAHDC, but when it was cancelled, it was done by the DC without even taking into confidence the hill council, which is a clear violation of its mandate,” Wangchuk said, adding it is a matter of grave concern for the people of Ladakh.
“We are not staying silent and are approaching the court of law to seek justice,” he said.
Angmo said the institute has already signed about five MoUs with universities in different parts of the world and many of their foreign students are visiting Ladakh for their research.
“Our institute has the ability to prove itself as the pride of India and needs whole-hearted support… such institutions should not be sabotaged if the government believes in nationalism and patriotism. We want India to come to the world map on education, a dream which is yet to be fulfilled in the last 75 years of independence,” she said.
She appealed to the Ladakh administration not to mix politics with education and to stop targeting the institute.
LAB co-chairman Chering Dorjey also condemned the move, calling it an attempt to silence the people of Ladakh who are pressing for statehood and Sixth Schedule. ““I want to tell them that if they think on these lines, they are mistaken. We will not be cowed down by such acts,” Dorjey said, standing alongside LAB members and Wangchuk.
Follow us
