Guwahati, Aug 25 (IANS): Days after the delimitation exercise was completed, the Assam Cabinet has decided to establish four new districts and 81 sub-districts to boost administrative effectiveness, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced on Friday.

The Chief Minister said that Hojai, Biswanath, Tamulpur, and Bajali are the places which will be given districts status. The district status of these four places was scrapped just before the delimitation process began on January 1 this year. The decision irked many people in the state and protests erupted in different places of the state.

The Chief Minister had then promised to roll back the decision once the delimitation process of assembly and parliamentary constituencies was over. According to him, this was done to protect the identity of the indigenous people of Assam in the delimitation exercise.

However, the opposition had launched an attack on Sarma claiming that he was trying to decrease the percentage of Muslim voters in many constituencies.

On Friday, he said, “We have reconstituted the four new districts, and it is co-terminus with assembly constituencies declared by the Election Commission under delimitation.”

After the addition of the new districts, Assam will now have 35 districts in total.

Additionally, Assam will have sub-districts instead of sub-divisions, Sarma said.

He asserted that this decision will bring the administration to the door step of the rural people and increase administrative efficacies.