People of Ladakh demanding inclusion of Ladakh in the sixth schedule.

People of Ladakh demanding inclusion of Ladakh in sixth schedule of the Indian constitution.

President of Republic India 

There has been a lot of demands from the civil activists in Ladakh to include this newly formed Union Territory Ladakh in the sixth schedule of the Indian constitution, after scraping of article 370 gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

What is sixth schedule of the Indian constitution? 

The sixth schedule under the article 244 of the Indian constitution tells about the Autonomous District Council, ADC. This inclusion is done on the basis of socio-economic status of the tribes. There are four states listed in the sixth schedule - Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. And the schedule 5 is for the rest of the schedule castes and scheduled tribes of the country. Actually the ADCs are the autonomous districts which have some exclusive powers of legislative, judiciary and running administration in their districts.

- The act of parliament or state legislative do not apply on the ADCs or apply with specified exemptions.

- An ADC comprises of 30 members in which 26 members are elected by adult franchise and the remaining 4 members are nominated by the Governor.

- The Governor is empowered to organise or re-organise the ADCs.

- The elected members hold the office for 5 years and the nominated members hold the office during the pleasure of Governor.

Functions of ADC.

 - ADC performs various functions like making laws which are best suited for the socio-economic of the the tribes like lands law, marriage and divorce, forest laws, shifting cultivation, canals, construction, businesses, etc. 

- The community meeting is held responsible for short out disputes between the tribes, so they have judiciary powers under the supervision of governor.

Apprehensions of people of Ladakh.

The people fear about big businesses, conglomerate taking away lands, resources and employment from the people of Ladakh. The government is not eager to include into the sixth schedule, however if decides so,  bring a Constitutional amendment bill in the parliament.