Four newly created districts would be officially merged with existing districts, the Assam cabinet approved on Saturday. Biswanath district will be merged with Sonitpur, Hojai will be merged with Nagaon, Tamulpur district will be merged with Baksa, and Bajali district is being merged with Barpeta district.
This was done in compliance with the Election Commission’s directive on delimitation, which requires that no districts or administrative units be changed by the Assam government starting on January 1, 2023, when the state would start its delimitation process.
Local residents in Biswanath and Bajali staged demonstrations against the decision.
According to the government, all district offices established during this time will continue to operate, including the police and judicial systems, to ensure that neither officials nor staff members encounter any difficulties.
Today in Delhi, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma stated, “These decisions have been taken because of administrative ascendancy and in the interest of Assam, and the society. We have decided to re-merge four districts. Decisions were taken in the interest of Assam’s future.”
For the delimitation process, he claimed that this is a temporary measure.
Delimitation is the process of establishing the borders or limits of the territorial constituencies in a nation or state with a legislative body.
There will be 31 districts overall following the merger, down from 35.
Prior to this, the Election Commission announced on December 27 that, at the Union Law Ministry’s request, it had started the process of delineating Assam’s assembly and parliamentary constituencies and will revise the number of seats based on the results of the 2001 census.
The BJP has been under fire from opposition parties for allegedly attempting to rig Assam’s Muslim-majority seats in their favour.
Others have questioned why the 2001 Census data was used rather than the more recent 2011 Census, which shows that Assam has experienced the highest growth in the nation for Muslims with a 3.3% increase.
These accusations, according to the BJP, are false and are made to cause confusion.
