Jaipur: Taking a major decision, the BJP government of Rajasthan has scraped 9 out of 17 districts and all 3 divisions formed during the Ashok Gehlot rule. This decision has been taken in the cabinet meeting chaired be CM Bhajan Lal Sharma on Saturday. Now there will be 41 districts and 7 divisions in Rajasthan.
Accusing the previous Congress government of ignoring the basic norms for creating new districts, the cabinet minister Jogaram Patel said that new districts and divisions were created just before the elections to take political advantage.
“Financial resources and norms of population and number of blocks were ignored. There were many districts which did not have even 6–7 blocks, which is the minimum requirement to form a district. Neither new posts were created, nor any office buildings were arranged for the new districts,” said the minister adding that these districts were putting unnecessary burden on Rajasthan.
Notably, the previous Ashok Gehlot government had created 17 new districts and three new divisions in the state claiming that the formation of small districts will help the people to reach the administration. The move was considered historic as this number of districts were formed for the first time after the formation of Rajasthan. However, the decision could not yield desired results for Congress as it failed to retain power in the state.
Reacting to the government’s decision, the state Congress president Govind Singh said that scrapping the districts is an undemocratic decision as the districts were formed on the recommendations of a committee headed by a retired IAS and on public demand.
“The Congress will start a statewide agitation against the government as this decision is not acceptable at all,” said the Congress president.
The scraped districts – Dudu, Kekri, Shahpura, Neemkathana, Gangapur City, Jaipur Rural, Jodhpur Rural, Anupgarh, Sanchore.
The retained districts – Balotra, Beawar, Deeg, Didwana-Kuchaman, Kotputli-Behrrod, Khairthal-Tijara, Phalodi and Salumber.
