The Ashok Gehlot cabinet in Rajasthan on Friday approved the notification of 19 new districts of the state. With this, Rajasthan now has 50 districts.

Pali, Sikar and Banswara have been made divisions, after which the state has a total of 10 divisions, the Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot told a press conference at his residence after the cabinet meeting.

Senior IAS and IPS officers have been appointed as OSDs in all the new districts, and a fund of Rs 2,000 crore has been earmarked for this purpose in the first year, Gehlot said quoting his budgetary announcement made in March this year.

The minister in-charge of all the new districts will inaugurate their offices on August 7, and the other offices linked with superintendent of police and collector would start taking shape at the earliest, he said.

Dudu is the smallest district in size while Jaisalmer is the biggest district area wise, according to the notification.

The Jaipur and Jodhpur districts have also been divided into two. Their municipal corporation area has been included in Jaipur-Jodhpur and tehsils outside it in Jaipur-Jodhpur Rural.

On a question of setting up of new district courts, Gehlot said it will take time but there would be SDM and ADM to deal with legal cases in the beginning.

When asked as to whether the move will be beneficial to the ruling Congress in upcoming assembly polls, he said, “It was the demand of concerned public representatives for new districts. My government has made not just one or two districts, but 19 in one go. The general public and the farmers would be happy to have district offices in their vicinity to solve their problems related to revenue, banks, school, colleges, and hospitals. This is a happy sign for us.”

On a similar demand for new district formation from Malpura, Devli, Suratgarh cities, Gehlot said the Ramlubhaya Committee that drafted and finalised 19 new districts would take up the matters related to public and MLAs demands.

Among others who addressed the press conference included Revenue Minister Ramlal Jat, Chief Secretary Usha Sharma and Revenue Secretary Aparna Arora.