History

BRIEF HISTORY 

 Kokrajhar town is the Headquarter of Kokrajhar district as well as the capital of Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) and is situated on the eastern side of Gaurang River.

 Kokrajhar was originally a part of the undivided Goalpara district. In 1957 it was curved out as a Civil Sub-division from the then Dhubri Sub-division of Goalpara district. Till then it was merely small town with a railway station. On 1st July, 1983 it was upgraded into a district. At that time, there were four Police stations viz. Bijni, Sidli, Kokrajhar and Gossaigaon with a total area of 4,065.88 Sq.Km. spreading from the river Manas in the east to the river Sonkosh in the west. In 1989, the district of Bongaigaon was curved out with about 40% area of Kokrajhar district. Later on, the Nayekgaon G.P. of Dhubri district with an area of 40.22sq.km was merged with this district. Again on 10th February, 2009 Chirang district was created by curving out parts of Kokrajhar district and some parts of Dhubri district were merged with Kokrajhar district. The present area of the district is estimated to be 3,169.22sq.km and that of the town is 125.78 sq.km. 

In the year 1956 Kokrajhar town committee was formed to look after the various civic needs of the growing community and it got the status of Municipal Board in the Year 1970. 

Kokrajhar was declared Sub-Division in the year 1957. Electricity came to Kokrajhar for the first time in 15th August, 1957. Kokrajhar College was established in the year 1959, B.T. College 1971, Law College and Commerce College in 1986 and Girls’ College in 1989. 

Kokrajhar was declared District in the year 1983, The Bongaigaon refinery and Petrol Chemical Complex established in the year 1972 came under Kokrajhar District. The Bongaigaon Thermal Power Station was established in the year 1975 at Salakathi. As a district Headquater, number of Government and Semi-Government establishments came into existence at Kokrajhar creating employment opportunities to a considerable extent and as a result people from outside have started migrating to Kokrajhar in search of job and economic opportunities.

 The colourful Bodo community comprises the majority in Kokrajhar district. It also has a sizeable Rajbongshi and Santhal population. Issues relating to disparities across socio-religious communities have attracted much attention of the Government of India and have led to the growing realisation about the relative backwardness of the relative minorities. The result of one such situation is the formation of the BTAD which was created as a new political administrative region with four new districts viz. Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Udalguri after the signing of BTC accord between the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT) the then organisation spearheading the movement for separate Bodoland State, Assam Government and the Central Government on 10th February of the year 2003. The BTAD was created after the amendment of 6th schedule of Indian Constitution. A new agreement was signed between NDFB, ABSU, Assam Government and the Central Government on on 27th January 2020 by creating Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR).