GUWAHATI The Assam cabinet on Saturday decided to merge four districts with others and redraw boundaries in 14 places, a day before the Election Commission (EC) bar on redrawing new administrative units comes into effect.
On December 27, the poll panel announced it has initiated the delimitation of 126 assembly and 14 parliamentary constituencies in Assam using the 2001 census figures for the readjustment of seats. It, however, said there would be no increase in number of seats with effect from January 1, 2023 due to delimitation.
The decision to merge four existing districts was taken at the Assam cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in New Delhi on Saturday.
“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,” Sarma told reporters in the national capital.
The decision comes into effect immediately and notifications regarding the same have been issued, the chief minister said.
{{/usCountry}}The decision comes into effect immediately and notifications regarding the same have been issued, the chief minister said.
{{/usCountry}}“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.
With this, the number of districts in Assam will get reduced from 35 to 31.
“This is a transitional phase and we will revive the four districts again once the delimitation exercise is over,” said Sarma. “In the meantime, the judicial, police and administrative offices in the four districts would keep functioning as usual.”
The chief minister further informed that there would be redrawing of boundaries in 14 areas for administrative reasons. While details of all such places have not been disclosed, he said that the municipal area of North Guwahati, which falls in Kamrup (Rural) district, will get included in Kamrup (Metropolitan) district.
“These decisions were needed. My cabinet colleagues would visit these areas and talk to stakeholders to inform why we needed to take them,” said Sarma. “I expect the public to understand our view and cooperate with us.”
“We had to take these decisions on the last day of the year, as EC has already initiated the delimitation exercise and from tomorrow (January 1), we would not have been able to take any such measures till the exercise get over. We could have taken these steps one by one, but had to club them together in one go,” the chief minister added.
On December 27, the poll panel had pointed out that under the provisions of the Delimitation Act, 1972, the last delimitation of constituencies in Assam took place on the basis of 1971 census figures by the then Delimitation Commission in 1976.
EC had informed that the move to redraw the assembly and parliamentary seats of Assam as per Section 8A of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 has been initiated following a request from the Union law ministry.
Delimitation is the process of fixing boundaries of the territorial constituencies in a country or a state with a legislative body.
Meanwhile, opposition parties in the state questioned the sudden move by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led Assam government alleging it was a politically motivated decision.
“This is a very surprising and politically motivated move,” said Bhupen Kumar Borah, the Assam Congress president. “Why was this done without talking to the people of the four districts or placing this issue beforehand in the assembly?”
Md Aminul Islam, organising secretary of All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), alleged that the decision seems to be taken with an eye on the 2024 general elections.
“There seems to be a hidden agenda and political motive behind the decision. The CM has not given any concrete explanation for it. It appears the BJP wants to reduce ST/SC and minority dominated seats ahead of the 2024 general polls in order to pursue its political goals,” he added.
NEEDS OPPOSITION REAX