Ahead of EC's delimitation deadline, Assam merges 4 districts; redraws boundaries

On Tuesday, the Election Commission announced fresh delimitation of 126 assembly and 14 parliamentary seats and banned creation of new administrative units with effect from January 1.

The Assam Cabinet on Saturday (December 31) decided to merge as many as four districts with existing ones and redraw boundaries in 14 places ahead of the Election Commission's (EC) deadline on starting the delimitation exercise for assembly and parliamentary seats.

This decision comes at a meeting of the Assam Cabinet in New Delhi. With this, Biswanath district will be merged with Sonitpur, Hojai with Nagaon, Bajali with Barpeta and Tamulpur with Baksa.

The decision comes into effect immediately and notifications have been issued. The number of districts in Assam will now be reduced from 35 to 31.

Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said it had to be done despite him not being very happy with them.

Speaking to reporters, CM Sarma said, "I am not very comfortable with the decisions taken today, but sometimes we have to take some measures keeping the overall good of the state's people in mind, due to administrative exigencies and for a better future of Assam."

"This is a transitional phase and we will revive the four districts again once the delimitation exercise is over. In the meantime, the judicial, police and administrative offices in the four districts will keep functioning as usual," Sarma said.

On Tuesday, the Election Commission announced fresh delimitation of 126 assembly and 14 parliamentary seats and banned creation of new administrative units with effect from January 1.

CM Sarma said that there would be redrawing of boundaries in 14 areas for administrative reasons. While details of all such places have not been disclosed, he mentioned that the municipal area of North Guwahati, which falls in Kamrup (Rural) district, will now get included in Kamrup (Metropolitan) district.

"We had to take these decisions on the last day of the year as EC has already initiated the delimitation exercise and from tomorrow, we wouldn't have been able to take any such measures till the exercise gets over. We could have taken these steps one by one, but had to club them together in one go," Sarma said.