New Delhi, Oct. 1: The Union cabinet today approved Sixth Schedule status for the Darjeeling hills, nearly two years after GNLF chief Subash Ghisingh signed an agreement for a new Gorkha council with more powers.

However, the powers that come with the new status will be conferred on the Gorkha Hill Council only after Parliament passes a bill in the winter session.

The go-ahead for a new council means Articles 244 and 332 of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution will have to be amended as the special status was so long restricted to the north-eastern states.

“It was a long-cherished dream of the hill people and of Subash Ghisingh,” said information and broadcasting minister P.R. Das Munshi.

The Centre, the Bengal government and Ghisingh had in December 2005 signed the memorandum of settlement, which sought to replace the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, created out of a state act, with the more autonomous GHC.

The new status would mean more legislative powers, including tax collection and enactment of laws in areas like education, rural development and land revenue. The new council will also be able to make appointments to all posts except where recruitment is made on the state public service commission’s recommendations. Law and order will, however, remain with the state government.

The council’s jurisdiction will extend over the three hill subdivisions of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong. Sixteen mouzas of Siliguri will also be under the new council.

“It is a welcome development,” Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said in Calcutta.