Rajasthan: Ashok Gehlot-led government to rewrite official history of districts afresh

Jaipur: Ashok Gehlot led Rajasthan government would rewrite the official encyclopedic account of districts. A project with a budget provision has been approved by the Gehlot government in which gazetteer of five districts would be prepared afresh. Directorate of Economics and statistics is the nodal agency for the project.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has instructed officials to maintain authenticity and uniformity in the official account of the districts to be produced. “The work should be done through writers of repute to maintain authenticity and uniformity,” Gehlot said in a statement.

As per the project approved for the gazetteers, all 33 districts will soon have freshly written gazetteers in Rajasthan. Six districts would be taken up every year with a budget of Rs 5 lakh approved for each district. In the first phase, gazetteers of Alwar, Banswara, Jodhpur, Karuali, Hanumangarh and Pratapgarh would be taken up. Meanwhile, a collection of information for Churu, Bharatpur, Sriganganagar, Bikaner, Jaislamer and Jalore would be done as preparation for the second phase.

The district gazettes of Rajasthan are around 15 to 40 years old. Ashok Gehlot had announced in the state budget to rewrite the district gazettes in the phased manner. District gazettes are the official encyclopedic account of the district explaining its brief history, geography, people, culture, unique customs, and geology along with statistical data from various sectors including mining, industry, agriculture etc.

The new gazettes would be first of their kind of account for new district like Pratapgarh which never had their own official account of description and data. The first edition of Imperial Gazetteer of India was published in 1881 in nine volumes. Later a parallel series of provincial gazetteers were added.