New Delhi: The Leh Apex Body (LAB) and Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) have alleged that the Ladakh administration’s decision to create Autonomous Hill Development Councils (AHDCs) in each of the Union Territory’s seven districts is aimed at diluting the powers of the proposed representative government for Ladakh under Article 371, reported Indian Express.“This is a plan to dilute the powers of the proposed representative government that is going to take shape under Article 371. If all the powers are going to be given to the hill councils, what will the representative government do? Ladakh does not have such a big population that you need so much decentralisation,” LAB co-chairman Chherring Dorje Lakruk told the newspaper.Earlier, Ladakh chief secretary Ashish Kundra had said that the move to create AHDCs was in response to the long-pending demands of residents in the new districts and would also strengthen democratic decentralisation and grassroots governance.The KDA has said that the decision has been taken unilaterally without consulting either the KDA or the ABL.“I don’t understand how seven hill councils will improve administration when the existing hill councils of Leh and Kargil are toothless at the moment. These kinds of cosmetic administrative changes are not going to help us. This is a plan for maximum government and minimum governance,” said KDA co-chairman Sajjad Kargili, reported Indian Express.Earlier, both sides on July 3 signed the minutes of the sub‑committee meeting held on May 22, in which consensus had emerged on key issues. The sub‑committee of the high-powered committee comprised representatives of the Union home ministry and the Leh Apex Body (LAB) and the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) groups.The home ministry formed the committee to address demands for constitutional safeguards for Ladakh and the protection of land and jobs among others.Earlier, the LAB and the KDA had alleged that the home ministry produced inaccurate minutes of the May 22 meeting and later failed to produce a revised draft.On the demand for constitutional safeguards for Ladakh, the sub‑committee had decided that Ladakh will have a customised sui generis model that is best suited for the Union territory.The Indian Express cited sources who said that the proposal to create AHDCs was initially recorded in the Minutes of the Meeting (MoM) but both the LAB and KDA had objected to it.“Objecting to this and other issues, we refused to sign the MoM. Following this, another MoM was prepared from which this point was removed. We signed that MoM. Now the government has gone ahead and announced it without taking us into confidence,” said a senior leader from Ladakh.