District and Local Administration

District Administration

Revenue Administration has historically been the primary responsibility of District Administration. This involves collection and fixing of land revenue, registration, mutation and overall management in regard to land - private and public. Besides the Revenue Branch of the Deputy Commissioners Office, which is looked after by Additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue), there are 5 outlying Revenue Circles (Tehsils) in the district, supervised by Circle Officers. Unlike in most other districts in Assam, Mouzadari System is not applicable in Karimganj. Circle Officers, being Tehsildars are responsible for collecting land revenue (Khazna) from land owners (pattadars). All the Circle Officers, and also the Settlement Officer (since Settlement Operation in in progress in the district) are required to submit 'doul' (demand of revenue) to DC, and after his approval, Tehsildars are to collect revenue as per the demand.

Settlement Operation in Karimganj District : From the point of view of Revenue Administration, Land area of Karimgan District fall under two seperate categories - (a) Permanently Settled Estate (comprising 664 revenue villages and 2 non-cadastral villages) and (b) Temporarily Settled Estate (comprising 476 revenue villages). As regards Permanent Estate, Settlement Operation is now under process and is likely to be completed within a year or two. As for Temporary Estate also, Govt. of Assam has issued notification for Settlement Operation to start from 1st August, 2000. The entire Settlement Operation is being done under the guidance of a Settlement Officer.For details on Settlement Operation, click

Apart from Revenue matters, District Development is one very important objective of the District Administration. As head of the District Administration, DC is responsible for all round developmental activities in the district under various programmes such as MP's Local Area Fund (MPLAD), MLA's fund, Untied Fund, Sub-divisional Plan Scheme Fund, Border Area Development Fund, Employment Assuarance Scheme (EAS) fund and so on. For this work, the DC assigns one A.D.C. (Development) the specific task of looking after and coordinating various developmental activities undergoing in various sectors. The ADC (Development) is aided in this matter by the Decentralised Planning Cell of the DC's office. All development departments in the district, like PWD, Irrigation, Health, Education and many others work in coordination and a District Development Committee (DDC) headed by D.C. has been in place to ensure this coordination. Under the Government policy of rapid upliftment of rural polulation, A District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) is functioning in the district which has the DC as the Chairman and one Project Director as its functional head. All schemes for Rural Development are implemented by agency and in this work, it is aided by the 7 (seven) Community Development Blocks situated in outlying rural areas of the district. These C.D. Blocks are supervised by Block Development Officers (BDOs) and Senior BDOs.

Maintenance of Law & Order is another important aspect of district administration and the DC also being the D.M. is responsible for proper maintenance of the same. The DC is aided by the ADM's, SDM's and EM's. The Circle Officers of the Tehsils also function as Executive Magistrates and are responsible for maintenance of Law & Order in their respective circle areas. The DM and other magistrates take the necessary assitance from the police department for any necessity. District Police Administration is headed by the Superintendant of Police. The police department has an infra-structure of four police stations, four out-posts and other auxiliary establishments in the district.

Local Administration

As for the rural aeas in Karimganj District, a hierarchy of local administrative bodies is in place with Mahakuma Parishad at the top (Sub-division level) followed by Anchalik and Gram Panchayats which cover a total number of 933 villages in the District.