Rajasthan: Public anger at scrapping of 9 districts by Bhajan Lal government

Since it came to power in December 2023, the Bhajan Lal Sharma-led BJP government in Rajasthan has changed the names of 10 prominent welfare schemes initiated by the previous Congress-led government under Ashok Gehlot as chief minister, to the point where the name change has become a bit of a joke.

Now, the BJP government has scrapped nine of the 17 districts as well as three divisions created by the Gehlot government in August 2023. However, it has retained eight new districts that supposedly meet the required criteria for district formation. Effectively, Rajasthan will now have 41 districts and seven divisions, down from 50 districts and 10 divisions.

The scrapped districts are Jaipur-Rural, Jodhpur-Rural, Shahpura, Sanchore, Dudu, Kekri, Neem Ka Thana, Anupgarh and Gangapur. The new divisions that were scrapped are Banswara, Pali and Sikar.

The scrapped districts will revert to their old district headquarters. So Jaipur-Rural and Jodhpur-Rural will go back to Jaipur and Jodhpur districts respectively, while Shahpura will revert to the original Jaipur district along with Dudu. Kekri will revert to Ajmer, Sanchore to Jalore, Neem Ka Thana to Sikar, Anupgarh to Hanumangarh, and Gangapur to Sawai Madhopur.

The decision has sparked widespread protests and led to anger on the streets, with even BJP workers in the scrapped districts reportedly joining hands with the Congress to show their anger. 

“For administrative reasons, Sanchore was made a separate district and it brought relief to people who had to travel long distances in the desert to go to Jalore. The Congress government created Sanchore district out of sympathy with the people.” former Congress minister Sukhram Bishnoi said. 

Gehlot himself emphasised that the creation of new districts was a well-considered decision aimed at improving governance in India’s largest state. “Gujarat is smaller than Rajasthan, yet it has 33 districts and imparts good governance with smaller administrative units. The new districts were created following recommendations by the Ram Lubhaya committee set up in 2018, and it submitted its report in 2023. The BJP government took just a year to scrap nine districts and three divisions. This decision will hit good governance hard,” he said.

Gehlot also said the Lalit Pawar committee which was tasked with the review of the Congress government’s decision to set up new districts worked under the BJP’s influence and made recommendations under the influence of BJP leaders. Retired IAS officer and former Union secretary Pawar was made chairman of the Rajasthan State Public Service Commission post-retirement, and later vice-chancellor of skill university.

“The Bhajan Lal government appointed Lalit Pawar to review the decision of the Congress government. The committee was formed after the BJP ministers, troubled by their conscience, were unable to support the decision of their own government. The BJP government even roped in former bureaucrats like former chief secretary D.B. Gupta to issue statements welcoming the scrapping of the new districts.

"Lalit Pawar had joined the BJP, and toed the party diktat in giving his report. Ministers and party functionaries were avoiding comments due to guilty conscience. I defend the decision taken by my government and it was not a political decision as alleged by the BJP. The decision was made to create more districts and divisions for better administrative efficiency.

"Madhya Pradesh is smaller than Rajasthan, yet it has 53 districts, while Rajasthan has been reduced to 41. When district headquarters are 100-150 km away, it becomes difficult to administer. The BJP is claiming so many districts were created to please people before the 2023 Vidhan Sabha (state assembly) polls. Then why were other new districts retained and nine districts and three divisions scrapped? This shows that even the BJP government believes that the formation of the districts was an administrative necessity,” Gehlot said.

State Congress president Govind Singh Dotasara said by scrapping the nine districts, the BJP has prioritised political interest over public interest. “The BJP has not touched the new districts where it is politically strong, but chose to scrap districts where Congress was strong,” he said.

Leader of Opposition Tikaram Jully said the BJP government has adopted the path of retaliatory politics. He said rather than scrapping the nine districts, the BJP government could have affected boundary adjustments. "Once we come to power again, we will restore these districts and go further and create more districts," he said.

BJP leaders have been claiming that the new districts were created in 2023 for votes in the Vidhan Sabha elections. “The Congress, unmindful of financial liabilities, even ignored the basic requirements of forming new districts such as revenue, law and order and boundaries, and took a hasty decision to form new districts at the cost of the state exchequer,” law minister Jogaram Patel said.

Patel also said the BJP government will now go for delimitation of gram panchayats. Earlier, 40 gram panchayats were needed to form a single panchayat samiti, which number has been reduced to 25. Once the gram panchayats are reorganised, the government will announce dates for the panchayat elections.

As reported on many earlier occasions, the BJP-led government has been actively rebranding schemes initiated during Gehlot's tenure. Over the past 12 months, names of 10 prominent schemes have been changed, with reports indicating that more could follow. Many of these schemes were originally named after members of the Gandhi family, which likely prompted Bhajan Lal Sharma's administration to initiate renaming efforts.

One of the first changes was halting the ‘Indira Smart Phone Scheme’, which aimed to provide smartphones to 1.35 crore women. Renaming of the ‘Mahatma Gandhi English Medium Schools’ scheme was also considered, but was paused following protests and assembly debates. Several key programmes have already been rebranded. The ‘Chiranjeevi Swasthya Yojana’ became the ‘Mukhyamantri Ayushman Arogya Yojana’, while the ‘Indira Rasoi Yojana’ was renamed as ‘Annapurna Rasoi’.

Other name changes include ‘Indira Gandhi Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme’ to ‘Chief Minister Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme’, ‘Chief Minister Bal Gopal Scheme’ to ‘Pannadhay Bal Gopal Scheme’, ‘Rajiv Gandhi Scholarship Scheme’ to ‘Swami Vivekananda Scholarship Scheme’, ‘Rajiv Gandhi Jal Swavalamban Scheme’ to ‘Chief Minister Jal Swavalamban Scheme’, ‘Chief Minister Senior Citizen Teerth Scheme’ to ‘Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Senior Citizen Scheme’.

Additionally, three schemes under the ‘Indira Mahila Shakti Programme’ were merged and renamed the ‘Kalibai Bhil Sambal Yojana’. While many of the renamed schemes previously honoured former PM Indira Gandhi, several programmes bearing names of prominent figures like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi, and Kasturba Gandhi remain unchanged. But insiders say these schemes may face rebranding too.

Gehlot accused the state's BJP disposition of scrapping or weakening public welfare schemes launched by his government. Alleging that the Centre failed to fulfil its promises, the veteran Congress leader said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should conduct a survey in the state to ascertain how much resentment had been created by the closure of these schemes. He also said the Congress government launched several welfare schemes on the basis of the party's manifesto and implemented those on time.

"Thus, the Congress government in Rajasthan set an example before the whole country, which benefited the public. The BJP government has closed or weakened all the schemes of the Congress government, which is causing a strong reaction among the public,” Gehlot had written to PM Modi, asking him to conduct a study among the people of Rajasthan.

Following the decision to scrap nine districts, seven district collectors and one superintendent of police will require reassignment. The collectors of Kotputli-Behror, Neem Ka Thana, Kekri, Shahpura, Sanchore, Gangapur and Anupgarh will have to be reassigned. In Jaipur and Jodhpur-Rural and Dudu, new collectors were not appointed, which will result in a massive bureaucratic reshuffle.

The divisional headquarters where divisional commissioners were appointed have also lost their utility. Several districts were put under one division for better administration, and the government itself pushed this post to the sidelines, with officers posted as divisional commissioners often finding it a 'punishment'.

District collectors would invariably not keep divisional headquarters posted about developments. Often, a junior officer was made divisional commissioner, while a senior officer would be made a collector forced to work under a junior divisional commissioner. There are numerous examples of such anomalies which made the divisional commissioner’s post insignificant.

The Bhajan Lal government has appointed several promotee IAS officers as divisional commissioners, which means they are junior to the district collectors. The divisional commissioner’s system was abolished in 1962 and revised in 1987. Many states like Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Telangana no longer have a divisional commissioner system. There is a strong bureaucratic lobby which wants this system abolished.