Assam, a northeastern state of India, is divided into 33 administrative geographical units called districts.
A district of an Indian state is an administrative geographical unit, headed by the Deputy Commissioner (DC), which combines the offices of the District Magistrate ultimately responsible for maintaining law and order and District Collector responsible for collection of the revenue. Generally, an officer belonging to the Indian Administrative Service becomes the DC but occasionally officers belonging to the Assam Civil Service too get appointed. The DC is assisted by a number of officials belonging to different wings of the administrative services of the state.
The districts of Assam are grouped together in five regional divisions, headed by a Commissioner. A superintendent of Police, an officer belonging to Indian Police Service is entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining law and order and related issues. The police administration in Guwahati City is headed by the Commissioner of Police, which started functioning from 1 January 2015.
During Independence, Assam had 13 districts. The districts were Cachar, Darrang, Goalpara, Kamrup, Lakhimpur, Nagaon, Sivsagar, Jayantia parganas, Garo hills, Lushai hills, Naga hills, Sylhet and NEFA. The British India protectorate 4 princely states under Assam state were Tripura, Khasi states, Koch Bihar and Manipur (included during Independence). After many inclusion and exclusion during independence and later till 1972, Assam formed the present shape with its prime 7 districts. The other 6 districts curved out of Assam, Sylhet district had given to East Pakistan; Jayantia, Garo and Khasi were combined and became Meghalya State; Lushiai hills became Mizoram; Naga hills became Nagaland; NEFA became Arunachal Pradesh; the both princely states Tripura and Manipur included in Assam and later separated as state and Koch Bihar became part of West Bengal.