Date: 16/02/2023

Relevance: GS-2: Separation of powers between various organs dispute redressal mechanisms and institutions

Key Phrases: Article 370, autonomous functioning, Autonomous Hill Development Council, Changthang region,‘carbon-neutral’, Autonomous District Councils (ADC).

Context:

• Three years after Article 370 was read down by Parliament, certain sections of people in the newly created Union Territory of Ladakh are back to demanding Statehood and a greater say in development projects as they feel dis-empowered due to bureaucratic overreach.

Why are the people of Ladakh dissatisfied with the region’s status as a Union Territory (UT)?

• Many Ladakhis have realised that their real need of relatively free and autonomous functioning and substantial local employment generation is still a mirage.
• Memory of long history: For 1,000 years, Ladakh was an independent kingdom before being integrated into Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).
  • The memory of this long history has not been erased, and it rankles that while it is no longer subject to J&K, Ladakh is now being ruled from New Delhi.
• Sixth Schedule status yet to be fulfilled: Before the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (AHDC) election, Sixth Schedule status was promised to the region, similar to what is seen in some parts of north-east India.
  • This promise is yet to be fulfilled.
• Sensitivity of the region: It is important to understand the sensitivity of Ladakh. The region’s cold desert ecosystems harbour rare mammals like the wild yak and the snow leopard, and diverse flora.
  • Cultures and livelihoods have evolved to be sensitive to the fragility of ecosystems that cannot bear heavy human activity.
  • High-altitude pastoralism, agriculture, and trade have been the mainstays of Ladakhi economy and society for centuries.
• Increase in Infrastructural Development: Ladakh is already groaning under infrastructure development, intense armed forces presence, and excessive tourism.
  • Since Ladakh became a UT, there is even more focus on an exploitative ‘development’ path.
  • There is enormous commercial interest in mining, tourism, hydropower, and other natural resources.
  • The UT administration has been inviting investments in the region, and India’s biggest corporations are showing interest.
  • A new airport is under construction, and road construction, including into the relatively unexploited Zanskar region, has been ramped up.
  • Ladakh already faces serious problems of landslides, erosion, solid waste and effluents, disturbance to wildlife, and cordoning off common lands for development projects.
  • In the name of a ‘carbon-neutral’ Ladakh, mega-solar projects are in the offing; the 2023 Budget has allocated ₹20,000 crore for solar power evacuation and grid integration from a project of 13GW in the ecologically fragile Changthang region.

What is the Sixth Schedule?

• The Sixth Schedule consists of provisions for the administration of tribal areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram, according to Article 244 of the Indian Constitution.
• Passed by the Constituent Assembly in 1949, it seeks to safeguard the rights of tribal population through the formation of Autonomous District Councils (ADC).
• ADCs are bodies representing a district to which the Constitution has given varying degrees of autonomy within the state legislature.
• The governors of these states are empowered to reorganise boundaries of the tribal areas.
• In simpler terms, she or he can choose to include or exclude any area, increase or decrease the boundaries and unite two or more autonomous districts into one.
• They can also alter or change the names of autonomous regions without a separate legislation.

Autonomous districts and regional councils

• Along with ADCs, the Sixth Schedule also provides for separate Regional Councils for each area constituted as an autonomous region.
• In all, there are 10 areas in the Northeast that are registered as autonomous districts – three in Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram and one in Tripura. These regions are named as district council of (name of district) and regional council of (name of region).
• Each autonomous district and regional council consists of not more than 30 members, of which four are nominated by the governor and the rest via elections.
• All of them remain in power for a term of five years.
• The Bodoland Territorial Council, however, is an exception as it can constitute up to 46 members out of which 40 are elected.
• Of these 40 seats, 35 are reserved for the Scheduled Tribes and non-tribal communities, five are unreserved and the rest six are nominated by the governor from unrepresented communities of the Bodoland Territorial Areas District (BTAD).

ADCs empowered with civil and judicial powers

• The ADCs are empowered with civil and judicial powers, can constitute village courts within their jurisdiction to hear trial of cases involving the tribes. Governors of states that fall under the Sixth Schedule specify the jurisdiction of high courts for each of these cases.
• The councils are also empowered to make legislative laws on matters like land, forests, fisheries, social security, entertainment, public health, etc. with due approval from the governor. The roles of the central and state governments are restricted from the territorial jurisdiction of these autonomous regions.
• Also, Acts passed by Parliament and state legislatures may or may not be levied in these regions unless the President and the governor give her or his approval, with or without modifications in the laws for the autonomous regions.

Way Forward:

• There are opportunities for Ladakh and Delhi to work together.
• A Hill Council decision for Ladakh agriculture to become fully organic could be backed by the Central government (for instance, by requiring the armed forces to purchase locally grown and made items).
• Communities could be aided to claim and operationalise collective rights over grasslands using the Forest Rights Act.
• Tourism could be fully oriented towards community-run, ecologically sensitive visitation.

Conclusion:

• Ladakhi civil society organisations and some government departments are already implementing amazing initiatives for livelihoods sensitive to the area’s ecology, decentralised solar energy use, sustaining the food and agricultural heritage, entrepreneurship, and much else.
• But if the Central government (and some of Ladakh’s own people) continue with the present mindset, all this will amount to nothing.
• A constitutional status that enables locally determined pathways, driven by a sensitive local population, can help avoid the disastrous track that many other parts of India have tread.

Source: The Hindu

Mains Question:

Q. What is the Sixth Schedule? Why are the people of Ladakh dissatisfied with the region’s status as a Union Territory (UT)? (250 words).