Assam Cabinet approves 12% quota for ex-Agniveers in constable posts

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: In a major development, the State Cabinet under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday decided to reserve 12% of constable posts in Assam Police, Fire Brigade, State Disaster Response Force, and Prison, Forest and Excise departments for ex-Agniveers of Indian Army.

Announcing this, Sarma told the media that the former Agniveers should however be permanent residents of Assam to avail benefit of the reservation. 

He said this was part of a nationwide policy, so that after four years of serving the army as Agniveers, they can work in their respective states.

He mentioned that as the Agniveers are already trained, their services will strengthen the government agencies that recruit them.

The cabinet also cleared a Rs 10,200 crore investment proposal from Dalmia Bharat Cement for setting up a cement plant in the state.

According to the chief minister, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the state overnment and the company during Advantage Assam 2.0 held in Guwahati in February 2025. 

Meanwhile, the National Highway (NH) part was bifurcated from the NH & Building wing of Public Works Department (PWD) and merged with PWD Roads. A decision to this effect was taken by the cabinet, which also approved creation of a commissioner's post to oversee the functioning of the newly-created PWD Roads & NH division.

In another major decision, the cabinet also waved green cess of transfer of ownership of electric vehicles, CNG vehicles, and two and three wheelers. 

Sarma elaborated that if a vehicle owner dies, the nominees operating such classes of vehicles too would not have to pay the green cess. But, he emphasised that all other category of vehicles older than three years would have to pay a green cess of Rs 3,000 while resale.

He said the green cess woudl be used for afforestation and conservation initiatives. 

Further, an amount of Rs 1 lakh per month was approved for Madhupur Xatra, Coochbehar to cover day-to-day expenditure of the xatra, besides Rs 10 crore for Assam Regiment as a one-time measure for infrastructure development.

Sarma said he saw 50% of youth serving in the Assam Regiment were from Assam during his recent visit. Besides, the logo of the regiment was also rhino, he pointed out.

The Brahmaputra Riverfront Development project in Guwahati too is expected to get a fillip with the task of preparing of detailed project report (DPR) for riverfront development from Kachari Bazar to Kamakhya stretch being assigned to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) by the cabinet. This will be an extension of the current riverfront developed between Rajbhavan and Kachari Bazar stretch in the city. 

Other major cabinet decisions included approvals to Assam Municipal Corporation Election (Amendment) Rules, 2026 for empowering the Court of District Judge of concerned districts in municipal corporation election matters, and execution of MoU between Government of Assam and councils (Bodoland, Dima Hasao and Karbi Anglong) for implementation, operationalisation, monitoring and long-term sustainability of rural water supply schemes under Jal Jeevan Mission and allied programmes.

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