Assam merges 4 districts with 4 others, changes jurisdiction of some villages ahead of EC delimitation

Delimitation is the process of fixing limits or boundaries of the territorial constituencies in a country or a State with a legislative body

The Assam government on December 31 decided to merge four districts with four others and changed the administrative jurisdiction of a few villages, a day before the Election Commission's freeze on redrawing administrative units comes into effect.

Announcing this at a press conference in New Delhi after a meeting of the State cabinet, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the decisions have been taken with a heavy heart keeping in mind the interests of Assam, its society and administrative exigencies. He added it was only "temporary" and did not disclose the reason behind the decision.

“While Biswanath district will be merged with Sonitpur, Hojai will be merged with Nagaon, Bajali will be merged with Barpeta and Tamulpur will be merged with Baksa,” he said.

The decisions had to be taken at the cabinet meeting on Saturday as the Election Commission has imposed a ban on creating new administrative units in Assam from January 1, 2023, as the poll panel will undertake the delimitation exercise in the State.

The administrative jurisdiction of some villages and a few towns have also been changed at the State cabinet meeting.

The merged districts were mostly created in the recent past and Sarma said he wanted to apologise to the people of these districts but hoped that they would understand the importance of the decisions.

The Chief Minister said a team of State ministers will visit these districts and interact with leading organisations and citizens to explain the reasons behind the decisions which can't be disclosed publicly.