GUWAHATI
Dibrugarh, the British-era hub of tea, oil, and coal trade, will be Assam’s second capital and sport an Assembly complex by 2027, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Sunday (January 26, 2025).
Addressing a Republic Day programme in the eastern Assam town, about 470 km east of Guwahati, he announced similar plans for two other towns in the State — Tezpur and Silchar.
“While north-central Assam’s Tezpur town will house a Raj Bhavan and emerge as the cultural capital of the State, southern Assam’s Silchar town will house a Mini Secretariat and the Chief Secretary’s office,” he said.
“We are developing infrastructure to turn these three towns into cities,” Mr. Sarma said, also announcing plans to create a Department of Startups to acknowledge the “backbone of a new Assam’s economic renaissance”.
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He said the construction work for a permanent Assembly building in Dibrugarh would start on January 25, 2026. “A session of the Assembly will take place in Dibrugarh every year from 2027,” he added.
The Chief Minister, who flew to Dibrugarh on Saturday (January 25, 2025) from Japan where he met potential investors ahead of the Advantage Assam business summit in February, said the State government’s initiatives include making chess a part of the school curriculum and a rollback of the New Pension Scheme.
“The employees whose recruitment process started before 2005 but completed later will be shifted to the Old Pension Scheme,” he said.
Drive against child marriage
On the Republic Day eve, Assam Governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya said the State government’s zero tolerance campaign towards narcotics led to the registration of 10,700 cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and the arrest of 17,000 drug traffickers in 2024.
“Due to constant efforts, crime against women has also drastically come down to 5,173 cases in 2024 from 12,070 cases in 2023,” he said, lauding the Assam police for its drive against child marriage.
Stating that 6,361 cases in connection with child marriages were registered until 2024, the Governor said 695 human traffickers were arrested and some 900 victims were rescued over the last 12 months.
He also said Assam, one of the first States to integrate sustainable development goals into its development plans, has improved steadily to move from an “aspirant” to a “frontrunner” in the SDG India index. “Assam achieved its target for Goal 7 (affordable and clean energy) with the highest score of 100 in the country,” he said.
The Governor further said Assam’s Gross State Domestic Product grew at an average rate of 13.33% for fiscal 2023-24 compared to the national average of 9.6%.
In Shillong, Meghalaya Governor Chandrashekhar H. Vijayashankar highlighted efforts to safeguard the State’s land, water, and vegetation from the threat posed by population growth, resource mismanagement, and climate change.
“Green Meghalaya, India’s biggest payment for ecosystem services programme is being implemented in the State, whereby communities are incentivised to protect forest. An amount of ₹48.3 crore has been disbursed to communities across the State to protect 51,200 hectares of forest,” he said.
He added that another 50,000 hectares would be covered under the scheme in 2025.
