Good news is in the offing for municipal employees as their services are to be provincialised by the state government.
Guwahati: Good news is in the offing for municipal employees as their services are to be provincialised by the state government. To facilitate this, a bill titled The Assam Municipal Employees (Provincialisation) Bill 2025 was tabled in the House during the ongoing budget session of the Assam Assembly on Monday.
After the bill is passed, as many as 1044 employees of 71 urban bodies will be benefitted. The Assam Municipal Employees (Provincialisation) Bill 2025 was introduced in the Assembly by Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Jayanta Mallabaruah. The financial implication of this for the government will be Rs 45 crore per year.
According to the statement of objects and reasons of the bill, urban areas are the growth centres of the economy of a state. The state has an urbanization level of 14%, which is much lower than the national average of 31.2%. There are currently 103 municipal boards in Assam driven by the provisions of the Assam Municipalities Act, 1956. The urban local bodies in the state are constrained by weak institutional structure and weak financial status due to poor revenue augmentation and also weak technical capacity to manage projects due to the absence of adequate human resources. The devolution of functions is still limited in terms of actual transfer due to inadequate capacities of the ULBs. The own revenue augmentation is limited to covering the expenses related to establishment, operation, and maintenance. The municipal employees are deprived of basic employment benefits, including long-pending dues of salaries in some cases.
The Assam Municipal Employees Act 2021 was enacted on May 31, 2021, in the backdrop of providing service benefits to municipal employees appointed prior to September 4, 2013, in 71 ULBs of Assam, excluding the sixth schedule areas.
However, it was felt that a procedure similar to the provincialisation of teachers by the School Education Department is required to ensure consistency in the principle of provincialisation across departments and to avoid any dichotomy in the state government’s policies.
This has necessitated the promulgation of a new Act for the provincialisation of municipal employees in 71 ULBs, who were appointed against regular sanctioned posts under the ULBs on or before September 4, 2013, and to provide them service benefits similar to state government servants in the corresponding ranks and to repeal the existing Assam Municipal Employees Act 2021. Hence, the Assam Municipal Employees (Provincialisation) Bill, 2025, was introduced in the Assembly on Monday (March 3).
