Days after Ladakh leaders and Union Home Ministry officials endorsed the final minutes of the May 22 meeting — described as a “breakthrough” in Ladakh, the Ladakh Administration on Monday said it would constitute an Autonomous Hill Development Council (AHDC) in each of the Union Territory’s seven districts.

As of now, there are only two Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils: Leh and Kargil.

Ladakh recently moved from two districts to seven in April 2026, when Sham, Nubra, Changthang, Zanskar and Drass were notified.

On Monday, addressing a press conference in Leh, Ladakh’s Chief Secretary Ashish Kundra said the move would extend the benefits of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) Act to the five newly created districts through appropriate legal provisions.

Kundra, who described it as a major step towards “democratic decentralisation and grassroots governance”, said section 3(1) of the LAHDC Act already provides for a Council for every district and only amendments to the act where required and a delimitation of constituencies remain.

The CS said each of the seven councils would carry the full powers set out in the LAHDC Act. He said the new districts get the same authority that Leh has held since 1995 and Kargil since 2003.

Hill Councils have authority over land ownership and land allotment within the district. Sham, Nubra, Changthang, Zanskar and Drass would exercise that authority within their own boundaries, said Kundra.

While councils hold a dedicated Council Fund and can levy taxes and fees, each new district will have a revenue base of its own.

Kundra also said ⁠a Union Territory-level body is proposed above the seven Councils under a customised Article 371 framework, with legislative, executive, financial and administrative powers.

The Chief Secretary said the model has no parallel elsewhere in the country and will draw on the best features of other arrangements.

He said the structure and powers of the Union Territory level body would be settled through consultation between Ladakh’s representatives and the Government of India.

“Some rebalancing of powers between the Councils and the UT body may follow,” he said.

The top UT official said ⁠Panchayati Raj institutions will continue alongside the Hill Councils. Ladakh will have elected representation at the village, district and Union Territory levels.

Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) co-chairman Sajjad Kargili said on Monday that the two bodies KDA and Leh Apex body(LAB) —  the two key bodies from Ladakh engaged with the Centre “will wait and watch to see the nature of councils”.

“We were not consulted before today’s decision. It is their decision. We will wait to see for more details and what type of councils they would turn out to be,” Kargili told The Tribune.

He said the past experiences of the two councils — Leh and Kargil — showed that the councils were “disempowered and had less power”.

Earlier this month, a meeting was held in Leh, where Ladakh leaders and Union Home Ministry officials signed the minutes of the May 22 meeting held in New Delhi. Days earlier, Ladakh observed a complete shutdown to highlight concerns over several issues affecting the Union Territory. One of the key issues raised during the protests was the alleged delay by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in signing the May meeting.