The Union Territory of Ladakh is set to get one hill council each for its seven districts and a UT-level body as Union Territory chief secretary Ashish Kundra made the announcement on Monday. Kundra described the move as a major step towards strengthening grassroots governance and balanced development across the region.
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While Ladakh earlier had two districts, five more were formed in April 2026. The new districts of Ladakh are Sham, Nubra, Changthang, Zanskar, and Drass. Elected representation until now has remained with the two existing councils, one each in Leh and Kargil.
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“Ladakh Administration has decided to constitute Autonomous Hill Development Council in each of the seven districts. It is a major step towards democratic decentralisation and grassroots governance,” Kundra said, news agency PTI reported.
He said Section 3(1) of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) Act already provides for a council for every district, to be constituted from a date the government notifies in the gazette. Only amendments to the Act, where required, and a delimitation of constituencies remain.
The overarching UT-level body above the seven councils has been proposed under a customised Article 371 framework, with legislative, executive, financial and administrative powers, the official said.
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The Chief Secretary said the model has no parallel elsewhere in the country and will draw on the best features of other arrangements.
This comes seven years after the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir that ended the special provisions of the erstwhile state of J&K and also paved way for the bifurcation into two UTs of J&K and Ladakh.
Article 371 is a provision in the Constitution that grants special safeguards and autonomy to certain states and regions to protect their cultural identity, land rights, local employment and administrative systems.
This has been among the key demands of activist Sonam Wangchuk who spent nearly six months in jail after protests in the hill UT last year over the restoration of statehood. In May, Wangchuk had expressed hope over the proposal of granting constitutional safeguards to Ladakh under Article 371. The representatives of the Leh Apex Body (LAB) and the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) had held talks with the Union government and Wangchuk had said that they have reached an “in-principle understanding” over enacting special constitutional safeguards in the region.
