In poll year, Ashok Gehlot announces 19 new districts, 3 divisions

Jaipur will now be divided into four smaller districts: Jaipur North, Jaipur South, and Dudu. Kotputli, which is also a part of Jaipur, will be merged with Behror in Alwar to create another district.

CM’s hometown Jodhpur will also be divided into Jodhpur East, Jodhpur West and Phalodi. Other new districts, with the existing district they are in, will be Anupgarh (Ganganagar), Balotra (Barmer), Beawar (Ajmer), Deeg (Bharatpur), Deedwana – Kuchaman (Nagaur), Gangapur City (Sawai Madhopur), Kekri (Ajmer), Khairtal (Alwar), Neem ka Thana (Sikar), Salumber (Udaipur), Sanchore (Jalore), and Shahpura (Bhilwara). Additionally, the three new divisions will be Banswara, Pali and Sikar.

Jaipur and Jodhpur will be removed from the figure of 33 following their break up into smaller districts. With this the total number of districts in the state will become 50.

Gehlot said, “From a geographical point of view, Rajasthan is the largest state and due to this, there are several districts where the headquarter is over a hundred km away from its farthest point. The common man has to face difficulties. Moreover, with an excessive population in some districts, the administration has difficulty in reaching every family,” he said.

Comparatively, district management as well as control and monitoring of law and order become simpler and easier in a smaller district,” he said.

“Various states are ahead of us in forming new districts. There the number of districts has doubled and tripled. Recently, West Bengal, which is geographically smaller than us, announced seven new districts,” he said.

The demand for creation of new districts had been coming in from several quarters since long. In February last year, Congress MLA from Pachpadra in Barmer, Madan Prajapat, had renounced footwear until his demand for creation of Balotra district was met. On Friday, as he announced the creation of Balotra, Gehlot joked, “I have to get Madan Prajapat to wear shoes.”

To implement the creation of these new administrative units on the ground and to provide human resources for the same, the CM announced Rs 2,000 crore in the first phase.

Since it’s an election year and with Gehlot going all guns blazing for his re-election bid, sources said that the CM will be visiting the districts shortly to maximise the momentum following Friday’s announcement.

After the culmination of his address in the Assembly, Gehlot was mobbed by MLAs who started chanting ‘Ashok Gehlot Zindabad’ and ‘chauthi baar, Gehlot sarkar’ (Gehlot government a fourth time), as Gehlot is in his third term as CM.

However, some who were left unhappy from the announcements included Congress MLA from Tijara in Alwar, Sandeep Yadav. Issuing his resignation from the post of Chairman of Rajasthan Sub Region (NCR) Infrastructure Development Board (RSRIDB), Yadav said that citizens of Tijara have been saddened as there was no announcement of Bhiwadi or Tijara as a district, “even though Bhiwadi, as the biggest industrial area of the state, gives the highest revenue to the state.”

Among other announcements, the CM said that the state government’s flagship Chiranjeevi Health Insurance scheme, upgraded from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 25 lakh in this budget, will be launched on March 30.

He also announced the development of Govind Dev Ji temple along the lines of Mahakal temple in Ujjain with Rs 100 crore in the first phase, as well as the creation of Pushkar Development Authority.

With his much touted scheme of smart phones to women head of 1.33 crore families covered under Mukhyamantri Chiranjeevi Yojana, announced in last year’s budget failing to gain pace, Gehlot on Friday said that there was “a chipset crisis across the world subsequent to our announcement, leading to a problem of (phone) availability and also shooting up their price.” He said that nonetheless, the state government will implement the scheme in a phased manner.

In the inaugural phase beginning on ‘Rakhi’ festival, girls in classes 10 and 12 in government schools, pursuing higher education, widows, etc. – or a total of about 40 lakh women – will be provided with the phones.

Then, considering the growth of e-Commerce and retail, CM said that Rajasthan Retail Policy as well as a Rajasthan e-Commerce Policy will also be brought in.

Taking a dig at the Opposition BJP over the developments in Parliament earlier in the day, Gehlot said, “We worry about the Opposition too. We are not like the (Central) government in Delhi which doesn’t care about the Opposition and turns off the microphone. Today was the limit, they shut off the entire proceeding. Hence we keep asking where the country is headed, no one knows. No one knows what will happen to democracy, such is the situation.”

“Congress and its leaders and no else is the creator of modern India – which Modi ji feels proud of wherever he goes in the world. It was the foresight of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who kept the strong foundation of self-reliance and we are benefitting from it,” he said.