A district of an Indian state is an administrative geographical unit, headed by the District Commissioner (DC), which combines the offices of the District Magistrate ultimately responsible for maintaining law and order and District Collector responsible for collection of the revenue. Generally, an officer belonging to the Indian Administrative Service becomes the DC but occasionally officers belonging to the Assam Civil Service do get appointed. The DC is assisted by a number of officials belonging to different wings of the administrative services of the state.
The districts of Assam are grouped together in [Divisions of Assam, five regional divisions], headed by a Commissioner. A superintendent of Police, an officer belonging to Indian Police Service is entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining law and order and related issues. The police administration in Guwahati City is headed by the Commissioner of Police, which started functioning from 1 January 2015.
History
District of Assam, British India – 1936District of undivided Assam – 1950
Before India's independence in 1947, Assam had 13 districts. The districts were Cachar (14 August 1832), Darrang (1833), Goalpara, Kamrup, Lakhimpur, Nagaon, Sivasagar, Jayantia parganas, Garo hills, Lushai hills, Naga hills, Sylhet and NEFA. The British India protectorate 4 princely states under Assam state were Tripura, Khasi states, Koch Bihar and Manipur (included during Independence). Sylhet district had been given to East Pakistan at the time of the Partition. After many inclusion and exclusion during the independence and later till 1972, Assam formed the present shape with its prime 7 districts. The other 6 districts curved out of Assam; Jayantia, Garo and Khasi were combined and became Meghalya State; Lushiai hills became Mizoram; Naga hills became Nagaland; NEFA became Arunachal Pradesh; the both princely states Tripura and Manipur included in Assam and later separated as state and Koch Bihar became part of West Bengal.
On 17 November 1951, United Mikir and North Cachar Hills district curved out of Golaghat, Nagaon, Cachar, Jayantia and Naga hills districts.
On 2 February 1970, Mikir Hills district curved out of North Cachar Hills.
On 26 January 2016, 2 more districts were announced, but on 7 October 2016, the government has withdrawn district status of East Kamrup and South Kamrup due to inadequate infrastructure. The two sub-divisions of East Kamrup district - viz. Chandrapur and Sonapur, is now part of Kamrup Metropolitan district. The sub-divisions of South Kamrup district is now part of Kamrup Rural district.
On 27 June 2016, one more district was announced by Sarbananda Sonowal, taking the total number from 32 to 33 which is Majuli (carved out of the Northern parts of Jorhat). It is the first river island district of India.[3]
On 8 August 2020, the Assam cabinet approved a proposal to make Bajali (curved out of Barpeta) the 34th district of Assam.[4] The Assam Cabinet headed by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma approved the proposal to make Tamulpur curved out of Baksa district a full-fledged district.[5] On 23 January 2022, Tamulpur was formally declared as a 35th district of Assam.[6]
On 31 December 2022, the Assam Cabinet decided to merge four newly carved districts with existing four districts.[7] These districts were,
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Bisha Sarma said it is a temporary measure before ECI delimitation process in the state and government may reconsider it.[8]
On 25 August 2023, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced the decision to recreate the four newly merged districts of Biswanath, Hojai, Bajali, and Tamulpur from their original districts.[9] Therefore, the total number of districts in Assam has once again become 35.
Districts
The areas and populations of the 35 districts are given below:[10][11]
Rather than notifying new standalone districts, the Government of Assam has opted for a decentralization strategy through the creation of "co-districts" (Assamese: Xama-Zilla). This model aims to provide district-level services within existing legislative assembly constituencies (LACs) without the full overhead of a new district.[17]
Key milestones achieved in this model include
Phase I: In late 2024, 39 co-districts were established.[17]
Phase II: In August 2025, 10 additional co-districts were notified including Digboi, Makum, Mariani, Teok, and Boko-Chhaygaon, bringing the total number of existing co-districts to 49.[17][18][19]
Future Plans
The state has announced a long-term goal of expanding the existing list of 49 co-districts to 78 across Assam to ensure "minimum government, maximum governance".[17][20][21]
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