Polity

Lone BJP member left in Mizoram’s tribal Chakma Autonomous District Council.

·        The Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India allows for the formation of autonomous administrative divisions which have been given autonomy within their respective states.

·        Most of these autonomous district councils are located in North East India but two are in Ladakh, a region administered by India as a union territory. Presently, 10 Autonomous Councils in Assam, Meghalaya,

·        Mizoram and Tripura are fashioned by means of distinctive feature of the Sixth Schedule with the relaxation being formed because of other regulation.

·        The governor is empowered to organise and re-organise the autonomous districts.

·        Thus, he can increase or decrease their areas or change theirnames or define their boundaries and so on.

·        If there are distinct tribes in an self reliant district, the governor can divide the district into numerous self sustaining regions.

·        Each self-reliant district has a district council which includes 30 individuals, of whom four are nominated by using the governor and the last 26 are elected on the idea of adult franchise.

·        The elected members hold office for a term of five years (unless the council is dissolved earlier) and nominated members hold office during the pleasure of the governor.

·        Each autonomous region also has a separate regional council.

·        The district and regional councils administer the areas under their jurisdiction.

·        They could make laws on certain designated topics like land, forests, canal water, shifting cultivation, village administration, inheritance of assets, marriage and divorce, social customs and so forth.

·        But all such laws require the assent of the governnor.

·        The district and regional councils inside their territorial jurisdictions can represent village councils or courts for trial of fits and instances between the tribes

·        They hear appeals from them.

·        The jurisdiction of excessive court over those fits and cases is particular via the governor.

·        The district council can establish, construct or manage primary schools, dispensaries, markets, ferries, fisheries, roads and so on in the district.

·        It can also make policies for the manage of money lending and buying and selling bynon-tribals.

·        But such regulations require the assent of the governor.

·        The district and regional councils are empowered to assess and collect land revenue and to impose certain specified taxes.

·        The acts of Parliament or the state legislature do not observe to self sufficient districts and self-sustaining regions or apply with specified changes and exceptions.