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Assam, a northeastern state of India, is divided into 33 administrative geographical units called districts.
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Administration
A district of an Indian state is an administrative geographical unit, headed by the Deputy 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 too 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 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
During Independence, Assam had 13 districts. The districts were Cachar, Darrang, Goalpara, Kamrup, Lakhimpur, Nagaon, Sivsagar, 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). After many inclusion and exclusion during independence and later till 1972, Assam formed the present shape with its prime 7 districts. The other 6 districts curved out of Assam, Sylhet district had given to East Pakistan; 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 November 17, 1951, United Mikir and North Cachar Hills district curved out of Golaghat, Nagaon, Cachar, Jayantia and Naga hills districts.
On February 2, 1970, Mikir Hills district curved out of North Cachar Hills.
In the year 1976, Dibrugarh district curved out of Lakhimpur and the Name of Mikir Hills district changed to Karbi Anglong district.
In the year 1983, Barpeta district curved out of Kamrup; Sonitpur district curved out of Darrang; Jorhat district curved out of Sibsagar, Dhubri district and Kokrajhar district curved out of Goalpara; Karimganj district curved out of Cachar.
On August 14, 1985, Nalbari district curved out of Kamrup.
On August 15, 1987, Golaghat district curved out of Sibsagar.
In the year 1989, Hailakandi district curved out of Cachar, Marigaon district curved out Nagaon, Bongaigaon district curved out of Goalpara and Kokrajhar, Tinsukia district curved out of Dibrugarh and Dhemaji district curved out of Lakhimpur.
On February 3, 2003, Kamrup Metropolitan district curved out of Kamrup.
On June 1, 2004, Baksa district curved out of Barpeta, Nalbari, and Kamrup; on June 4, Chirang district curved out of Barpeta, Bongaigaon; and Kokrajhar and On 14 June Udalguri district curved out of Darrang and Sonitpur; along with Kokrajhar district formed BTAD.
On April 1, 2010, Name of North Cachar Hills district changed to Dima Hasao.
On August 15, 2015, Tarun Gogoi, the Chief Minister of Assam, announced the formation of five new districts in the state, taking the total number from 27 to 32. The five new districts are the following: Biswanath (carved out of Sonitpur); Charaideo (carved out of Sivasagar); Hojai (carved out of Nagaon); South Salmara-Mankachar (carved out of Dhubri); West Karbi Anglong (carved out of Karbi Anglong).
On January 26, 2016, 2 more districts were announced, but on 7 October 2016, the Govt. has withdrawn district status of Kamrup East and Kamrup South due to inadequate infrastructure. They were East Kamrup (it's two subdivisions viz. Chandrapur and Sonapur, now part of Kamrup Metropolitan district) and South Kamrup (now a sub-division of Kamrup Rural)
On June 27, 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.
Districts
The areas and populations of the 33 districts are given below:
# - Districts under Bodoland Territorial Council