Rajasthan govt dissolves 9 districts; Congress protests

The decision of Bhajan Lal Sharma-led BJP government in Rajasthan to scrap 9 of the 17 new districts carved out by the previous Congress government has come under severe criticism as the Opposition has planned massive protests across the state from January 1.

Protests and sit-in dharnas have already been held in Neem ka Thana and neighbouring areas since Sunday. The protests followed the Cabinet decision on December 28 when the state government scrapped 9 of the 17 districts carved out by the previous Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government.

The districts will now be merged back into their original divisions. The scrapped districts include Jaipur Rural, Jodhpur Rural, Sanchore, Shahpura, Dudu, Kekri, Neem ka Thana, Anoopgarh and Gangapur City. It has retained eight districts, including Balotra, Beawar, Deedwana Kuchaman, Kotputli-Behror, Deeg, Khairtal-Tijara, Salumbar and Phalodi.


The Congress has accused BJP of playing politics with development, saying the state government has intentionally scrapped only those districts where Congress is strong and where BJP lost in the 2023 assembly elections. State Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra termed the Cabinet decision as "anti-people". "The decision has been timed in such a manner that the people cannot approach the courts. But Congress will launch a jan aandolan to oppose this," said Dotasra.

Rajasthan parliamentary affairs minister Jogaram Patel told ET that the decision was taken after a Cabinet sub-committee thoroughly examined the issue and a subject expert committee's report.

"The Cabinet sub-committee found that there was not enough justification for the formation of as many as 17 districts and nine of them did not meet the criteria laid down by the Union government," said Patel.

As soon as Sharma assumed charge as CM, he ordered the review of several measures introduced by the Gehlot government and constituted a five-member Cabinet sub-committee on June 13. An expert committee on reorganisation of districts was formed under former IAS officer Lalit K Panwar in June-end. The Panwar panel submitted its final report to the Cabinet sub-committee on August 31. It considered 10 parameters, including population density, economic backwardness, distance between district headquarters and tehsils and administrative structure to recommend whether a district should be carved out or not.