As if to stamp into memory the 100th sitting of the Cabinet under the stewardship of Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma, the Assam Government decided to create 81 sub-districts in the State while abolishing 24 civil Sub-divisions, and reorganised four districts in the State which were abolished months back.
Addressing the media after the meeting, the Chief Minister said that new sub-districts will become operational from January 1, 2024 but notification on their creation will be issued within the next few days.
“Today, we have decided to abolish 24 civil subdivisions of the State and create 81 sub-districts. The subdivisions had SDOs (civil) as heads, but an ADC (Additional District Commissioner) with almost equal power as that of a district commissioner will now head each sub-district,” said Dr Sarma.
The Chief Minister said that the sub-districts to be created will have all relevant Government departments. Constituencies under the Sixth Schedule Autonomous Councils will be kept out of the sub-district process while consultations will be held with stakeholders in due course.
Meanwhile, the fresh reorganisation of districts in the State comes two weeks after the Election Commission (EC) issued a final delimitation order for the 126 Assembly and 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in the State, which saw large-scale redrawing of many constituencies in both categories.
Ahead of the EC starting the delimitation exercise, the State Government had abolished four districts — Biswanath, Hojai, Bajali and Tamulpur — and merged them with existing ones and redrawn boundaries of Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies across the State.
“Since the delimitation process is over, the four districts will be functional again. But their boundaries have been reorganised based on the delimitation exercise,” the Chief Minister said.
The Chief Minister said that Hojai district will comprise Binnakandi, Lumding and Hojai assembly constituencies, Biswanath district will have Gohpur, Behali and Bishwanath constituencies, Tamulpur and Goreswar constituencies will be in Tamulpur district and Bajali district will have Bajali and Bhabanipur, and Sorbhog constituencies.
The Cabinet also approved the Assam Semiconductor Manufacturing and Electronic Production Policy, which the Chief Minister said will have far reaching impact.
“States like Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Orissa have announced a policy for semiconductors. Our policy will link production incentives, capital subsidy and technical know-how among others so that Assam can also compete with these States.”
”Many industrialists have evinced interest in this sector due to the clean and pure water of River Brahmaputra. We have decided to bring this policy to facilitate the setting up of semiconductor industries,” he said.
The Cabinet also decided that for the appointment of primary teachers, weightage of around 85% will be given to marks scored in the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) while the remaining 15% will consist of educational qualification and B.Ed marks.
Dr Sarma said that the Government has decided to introduce the ‘Swaccha Zila Puraskar’, or Most Outstanding District Initiative (MODI), which will be given annually to the cleanest district in the State.
The cleanest district will receive a grand prize of ₹ 100 crore, said Dr. Sarma, adding that the criteria will include garbage disposal, sewage treatment, and reach of clean drinking water, among others on which the districts will be judged.
“We will come up with the list of criteria and other details soon and districts will be evaluated on 108 parameters to be considered for the top prize.”
The Cabinet also enhanced the widow pension under the National Widow Pension Scheme by ₹ 950 to make it ₹ 1,250 per month in line with Orunodoi, a move which will cost the State exchequer an additional ₹ 950 cr annually.
On the performance of his Cabinet, the Chief Minister said that since May 2021, his Cabinet has taken 1,238 decisions in 99 meetings prior to the 100th meeting on August 25 of which 1,217 (or nearly 98%) have been fully or partially implemented.
Citing history, he said that between 2002 to 2021, successive Governments had held 264 Cabinet meetings in 20 years while in just over two years, his Government has managed to reach the milestone of 100 such meetings.
