Rajasthan government has decided to revoke the previous Gehlot government's decision of creating 9 new districts and all the 3 newly created divisional headquarters.
However, the Bhajan Lal government has decided to maintain the status quo on 8 other districts – Balotara, Beawar, Deeg, Didwana, Phalodi, Salumbar, Khairthal-Tijara and Kotputli-Behror – created alongside.
With this decision, Rajasthan now will have 41 districts instead of 50 and will return to have 7 divisional headquarters instead of 10.
The decision will lead government to abolish posts of collector in 9 districts – Kekri, Dudu, Sanchore, Shahpura, Jodhpur rural, Jaipur rural, Anupgarh, Neem ka Thana and Gangapurcity.
Similarly, posts of divisional commissioners in three divisions – Sikar, Banswara and Pali – will also get abolished.
6 collectors to have new postings soon, three districts already on additional charge
Six collectors of these newly created districts will have to be given a new posting soon while the state government is already running state of affairs in Jodhpur rural, Jaipur rural and Dudu on additional charge.
While Jaipur collector Jitendra Kumar Soni holds charges of Dudu and Jaipur rural, Jodhpur collector Gaurav Agarwal has additional charge of Jodhpur rural.
Rajendra Singh Shekhawat, a 2010 batch IAS , promoted from state administrative services, is serving as collector Shahpura while his batch mate Shakti Singh Rathore, another officer promoted from RAS, is serving as collector Sanchore.
Sharad Mehra, a 2015 batch officer, promoted from accounts services, is serving as collector Neem Ka Thana while Shweta Chauhan, a 2017 batch IAS officer is serving as collector Kekri.
Avdhesh Meena and Gaurav Saini – both from 2017 batch – are serving as collector of Anupgarh and Gangapurcity respectively.
Posts of 3 DCs already on additional charge
The posts of divisional commissioner of Pali, Banswara and Sikar are already on additional charge. Jodhpur divisional commissioner Pratibha Singh is holding additional charge of Pali while Pragya Kewalramani, commissioner tribal area development (TAD), who is having additional charge of divisional commissioner (DC) Udaipur, is also holding additional responsibility as DC Banswara. Vandana Singhvi, who is serving as DC Bikaner, has been given additional charge of DC Sikar. Now with her retirement on December 31, the post will be held as additional responsibility by Sikar collector Mukul Sharma.
Ram Kumar Kaushik is a seasoned journalist with over 25 years of experience across mediums. The architect of this news website, he is also a consultant with several media groups. He was formerly the group managing editor of ITV Network (NewsX, India News and The Sunday Guardian) and its digital products.
