"I do not worry about my post. I think it will not be cut", said Li Yuhe (not his real name), an official with the people's court of Chongwen district.

His court will merge with that of Dongcheng district amid the first consolidation of city districts since 1986.

Officials announced on Thursday that the State Council approved a plan to merge the four districts in the core area of Beijing - Dongcheng, Xicheng, Chongwen, and Xuanwu - into two larger ones.

Li is among the tens of thousands of civil servants working with the district-level authorities in the area, whose future has become uncertain due to the consolidation. The district-level people's congresses, people's political consultative conferences, committees of the CPC (Communist Party of China), governments, procuratorates and courts will all be restructured and consolidated.

Liu Qi, CPC Beijing committee secretary, said on Friday that only the district-level institutions will be merged, while the neighborhood-level authorities will stay as they are.

Li told METRO Liu promised that "the total number of civil servants will not be cut and the rank of every official will not change".

So, although the courts in Chongwen and Dongcheng districts have not made a specific plan on how to combine and arrange their posts, Li said he is quite confident that he will not lose his job or be demoted.

Though the posts for many civil servants will not immediately disappear, the prospects of their posts are not necessarily guaranteed in the long run. The State Council demanded that, when merging the district authorities, the local authorities streamline governmental institutions, cut expenditures and improve administrative efficiency. The requirement raised doubts that many posts might be downsized during the consolidation.

Zhou Guodong (not his real name), an official with the organization department of the CPC Beijing committee, said authorities are bound to streamline some governmental institutions and cut posts eventually.

He told METRO, however, there would be "a digesting process" for the restructure of personnel. In the short run, the number of the posts will not be noticeably changed, but in the long term, some of them may disappear. Officials in those posts may retire or move to other posts.

The CPC Beijing committee announced on Friday the appointments of Party committee secretaries of the new Dongcheng and Xicheng districts. Yang Liumeng, 54, secretary of Dongcheng CPC committee, will remain in office. Wang Ning, 49, current CPC committee secretary of Xuanwu district, will assume the secretary's office of the new Xicheng district.

The selection of district chiefs must go through a more complicated process, said Jiao Hongchang, a law professor with the China University of Political Science and Law. Because only the district-level people's congresses, which hold plenary sessions once a year, have the authority to elect district chiefs, the standing committees of the people's congresses may appoint acting chief to take charge of the district governments.

Jiao said the process of bureaucratic consolidation will take at least several months.