Districts to become fulcrum of administration: Assam CM Sarma

New Delhi [India], April 27 : The Assam government is mulling a massive overhaul of the administration and making districts as administrative and economic units.
To give a major push in this direction, the Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday held a preparatory meeting for the forthcoming three-day Deputy Commissioner's (DCs) conference slated to be held in Tinsukia from May 12 to 14.
The chief minister said the upcoming DCs conference will bring about a major transformation in the administration with the Office of the Deputy Commissioner becoming a fulcrum of administration.
"Unlike the traditional and conventional way of functioning, the DCs will henceforth focus on improving the GDP of his respective districts, GST generation, raising of per capita income, power consumption, industrial activity, agricultural diversification, creation of industrial landbank et al," he said.
"As per the directive of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the chief secretaries, the district has to become the focal point of administration. The DCs have to act as chief secretary of their respective districts with the state only facilitating it. It will be a model of decentralisation of powers to the district administrative level," he added.
The chief minister told the DCs that they have to become pro-active, henceforth, with greater responsibilities vested in them.
"If a state has to forge ahead, then the districts must also have to pitch in equally to contribute to its overall growth and development. That is why the district has to be an administrative and economic unit," he said.
The CM said budgetary allocations will be made to prepare a roadmap for converting the districts into administrative units over the next six months.
Sarma underscored the need for deputy commissioners to hold crime conferences, and encore meetings to rein in drug trade and cater to other important issues such as the completion of Aadhaar enrolment prior to the DC's conference. He made it clear that based on the performance of the DCs on different parameters, an assessment report will be made which will form the basis of the Annual Confidential Report (ACR).
Sarma directed the DCs to comply with his instruction to visit at least 10 numbers of schools, hospitals and anganwadi centres in their respective districts. The CM told the DCs that they have to give a detailed account of work they have done following the DCs conference in Tezpur, Diphu and Bongaigaon.
"Evaluation will be done on the basis of performance with plus and minus markings. And this will be a part of the assessment for the ACR. Sincere efforts will be taken into account that may not translate into results. But no excuses or diversional tactics will be tolerated," he said.
The upcoming three-day DC's conference will have cluster level meetings of six to seven DCs with senior most secretaries, divisional commissioners, guardian secretaries spread in Tinsukia, Dibrugarh and other places. A closed door session will be held on the last day where the chief minister, chief secretary and the DGP will be present.
The DC conference will discuss a gamut of issues including implementation of flagship programmes of the state and Central governments.
The video conferencing was attended by Principal Secretary to CM, Samir Sinha, Principal Secretary, Personnel, Niraj Verma, and Principal Resident Commissioner, Rajeev Chandra Joshi.
A video conference with the SPs will take place here on Thursday.