Hailakandi, May 9: The district administrations of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi districts in Assam's Barak Valley have started the process of delimiting village panchayats in compliance with a directive from additional chief secretary M.G.V.K. Bhanu to initiate the process immediately.

The state government had sought suggestions from all zilla parishads regarding the delimitation of village panchayats.

Hailakandi, Cachar and Karimganj districts currently have 62, 163 and 96 panchayats respectively. According to the provisions of Clause V (1) of the Assam Panchayat Act, 1994, the population of a village panchayat should be a minimum of 6,000 and should not exceed 10,000. The last delimitation of village panchayats was done in 2007.

At present, 1,103 panchayats in the state have exceeded the population limit of 10,000, while the population in 113 village panchayats are below 6,000. The current delimitation process will be based on 2011 census, an official in the Barak Valley said. He also said some new rules and regulations have been imposed for the delimitation. The headquarters of the existing 2,200 village panchayats of the state will remain unchanged and a panchayat should not be attached with two zilla parishads.

Hailakandi zilla parishad chief executive officer Ashim Kumar Bhattacharjee said they have already started the process of delimitation.

Arup Roy, a resident of Karimganj, said the elected members of village panchayats play a crucial role in rural development and in the three-tier local governance system of the state.

He alleged that the village panchayats have become the root of corruption and added that delimitation would definitely increase the number of village panchayats.#